A New Fire
by Koraki
Summary: The darkness is rising once more, and one cat stands in the way of Skullstar's quest for total power. Who will rise and who will fall? Post-OotS, AU, some canon chars, T for violence and some language. Last update: Chapter 7
1. Allegiances and Prologue

**Third draft of the introductory A/N. And counting, probably. Oh dear.**

**This is a Warriors fanfiction. It is a crossover that has been so totally re-imagined that at least eighty percent of the characters, storyline, and idea behind it belong solely to me, and so therefore I feel that I am putting it where it belongs. But yes, a tiny bit of this storyline may look familiar to you, and not just because this fanfic contains several canon warriors.**

**In this fanfiction, the Ancients are not canon. Well, not very canon, anyways. xP Fallen Leaves and the Moonpool Ancients may make quick cameos, but as far as anyone's concerned, the stick, Half Moon, and the rest of the Ancients subplot never happened. Sorry to anyone who'll miss them. Jayfeather and Lionblaze have not retained their powers in their original strength and form over the years; this will be explained in-depth as the story goes on. Another aspect of this story that has been changed from canon are the medicine cats with kits, the former-medicine-cat-apprentice leader, and the many, many half-Clan and former non-Clan cats. This will also be explained - I hope satisfactorily - so don't go completely insane on me about how I'm desecrating canon and the Code yet, please. :-)**

**I have added some characters' canon ancestry next to their names, for your benefit. Please don't use this information to start complaining about how mates are third cousins ninety times removed and incest is evil. No, incest is _relative_. Some of the youngsters who end up together will be second or third or even first cousins. I don't care, and you shouldn't either. They're _cats_. This is the first and last time I'll say it: don't bug me about this or we'll all regret it.**

**In case anyone wasn't clear on it, I'll say it again in the disclaimer: **

**The main plotline of this story is not copyright to me; this story is technically a _crossover_. Canon Warriors characters are not copyright to me. This is fanfiction; to be honest, nothing is really copyright to me. And I'm still spending all this time on it.**

**Happy reading. Be prepared to take your time getting through this; all of the chapters are at least five thousand words, and several have passed ten thousand. If I get the time I'll edit this A/N again with a list of monster chapters to look out for. Hopefully nobody will read it as "List of Chapters to Skip and or Skim", because that would make poor Kori sad.**

**With no further ado, I present you to the Allegiances. Allegiances, meet reader. Reader, meet Allegiances. Okay...go!**

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><p><strong>ThunderClan<strong>

Leader: Lionstar, elderly golden tabby tom with graying fur and a silver muzzle. Half WindClan. _Former leader of New LionClan._ _{{canon character}} _Apprentice, Otterpaw

Deputy: Olivefall, skinny gray tabby she-cat with yellow eyes. _Former member of New LionClan. {{canon parents: Dustpelt (dcsd.) and Ferncloud (dcsd.); OC littermate of Foxleap and Icecloud }}_ Apprentice, Longpaw

Medicine Cat: Smokewisp, pale grey and white she-cat with one blue and one green eye. _{{canon grandparents: Thornclaw (dcsd.) and Hazeltail (dcsd.) }}_

Warriors:

Molewhisker, big cream-and-brown tom. _Former member of New LionClan._ _{{canon character}}_ Apprentice, Weaselpaw

Sharpfang, large dark brown tom with dark golden eyes. _Former member of New LionClan. {{canon parents: Foxleap and Blossomfall (dcsd.) }}_ Apprentice, Gracepaw

Flamestreak, ginger tabby tom with light blue eyes._ Former member of New LionClan._ _{{canon parents: Foxleap and Blossomfall (dcsd.) }}_ Apprentice, Lavenderpaw

Auburnlight, reddish-gold she-cat with pale amber eyes. _Former member of New LionClan. {{canon parents: Brackenfur (dcsd.) and Sorreltail (dcsd.) }}_ Apprentice, Foxpaw

Wolfpelt, dark silvery gray tom with golden eyes and a dark gray, almost black, backstripe. _Former member of New LionClan. {{canon grandparents: Dustpelt (dcsd.) and Ferncloud (dcsd.) }} _

Amberpelt, reddish-gold tom with light blue eyes. _{{parents: Flamestreak and Auburnlight }}_

Redfur, reddish ginger tabby tom with light blue eyes. _{{parents: Flamestreak and Auburnlight }}_

Granitestripe, reddish ginger tabby tom with light blue eyes. _{{parents: Flamestreak and Auburnlight }}_

Swiftflame, white she-cat with a golden tabby tail and dark amber eyes. _Former loner._

Apprentices:

Foxpaw, red-pelted tom with greenish-yellow eyes. Half rogue. _{{canon grandparents: Mousewhisker (dcsd.) and Icecloud (dcsd.) }} _

Lavenderpaw, pinkish-gray she-cat with yellow eyes. Half rogue _{{canon grandparents: Mousewhisker (dcsd.) and Icecloud (dcsd.) }}_

Weaselpaw, ginger tabby tom with light blue eyes. _{{parents: Flamestreak and Auburnlight }}_

Gingerpaw, golden tabby she-cat with pale amber eyes. _{{parents: Flamestreak and Auburnlight }}_

Longpaw, skinny pale brown tabby tom with pale green eyes. Formerly of WindClan. _{{canon great-grandparents: Onestar (dcsd.) and Whitetail (dcsd.) }}_

Gracepaw, scruffy-furred brown tabby she-cat with dark amber eyes. Formerly a house cat.

Otterpaw, dark silvery gray tom with dark green eyes and faint dark gray tabby markings. _{{canon great-grandparents: Dustpelt (dcsd.) and Ferncloud (dcsd.) }}_

Queens and Kits

Lightwhisker, pale gray she-cat with blue eyes. Kits: Coldkit (gray and white tom) and Vinekit (pale gray tabby tom). _{{canon parents: Mousewhisker (dcsd.) and Icecloud (dcsd.) }}_

Elders 

Jayfeather, extremely old gray tabby tom with blind blue eyes. Half WindClan. _Former member of New LionClan._ _{{canon character}}_

Foxleap, reddish tabby tom. _{{canon character}}_

**ShadowClan**

Leader: Snakestar, long-furred black tom with dark blue eyes. Formerly the medicine cat apprentice. Half loner. _Former member of New BloodClan. Former member of New LionClan. {{canon grandparents: Smokefoot (dcsd.) and Snowbird (dcsd.) }}_ Apprentice, Ferretpaw

Deputy: Eagletalon, pale cream tabby tom with light blue eyes. _Former member of New BloodClan. {{canon grandparents: Blackstar (dcsd.) and Tallpoppy (dcsd.); canon parents Crowfrost (dcsd.) and Olivenose (dcsd.) }}_

Medicine Cat: Beetlefoot, solid gray tom with amber eyes. _{{canon parents: Oakfur (dcsd.) and Ivytail (dcsd.) }}_

Warriors:

Sunflight, golden-furred she-cat with amber eyes. _Former member of New BloodClan._ _{{canon parents: Ferretflight (dcsd.) and Pinetail (dcsd.) }}_

Finchcall, spotted brown tabby tom. _Former member of New BloodClan._

Squirreltail, ginger and brown she-cat. Apprentice, Rockpaw.

Cindernose, pale gray tom. _Former member of New BloodClan._

Grayfur, pale gray tabby she-cat. _Former member of New BloodClan._

Yewleaf, mottled tabby tom with strange, very dark green eyes. _Former member of New BloodClan._ Apprentice, Pebblepaw.

Bramblethorn, brown tabby and white she-cat. Half house cat.

Wetwhisker, gray and silver tom with white whiskers.

Aspenfrost, fluffy dark gray she-cat with silver-tipped fur and a silver tail. Apprentice, Petalpaw.

Apprentices:

Ferretpaw, pale cream tabby tom with light blue eyes. _{{parents: Eagletalon and Sunflight}}_

Petalpaw, gray and white she-cat with blue eyes.

Pebblepaw, mottled gray tom.

Rockpaw, pale gray tom.

Queens and Kits:

Splashfoot, light brown she-cat with darker dapples and white paws. Kits: Asterkit (dark ginger tabby she-cat) and Quailkit (brown tabby and white she-cat)

Elders:

Scarpelt, gray-and-brown tom with blue eyes. Scars criss-cross his body. _Former member of New BloodClan. {{canon parents: Ratscar and Applefur}} _

Brightdawn, once-pretty mottled tortoiseshell she-cat with distinctive ginger dapples. _{{canon parents: Kinkfur and Redwillow}}_

Sparrowclaw, blind tabby tom. _{{canon character}}_

**WindClan**

Leader: Puffstar, small and fluffy brown and white she-cat. _{{canon parents: Emberfoot (dcsd.) and Sedgewhisker (dcsd.) }}_ Apprentice, Cedarpaw.

Deputy: Leafpath, pale brown tabby tom. Half rogue.

Medicine Cat: Callflight, tiny white she-cat with light green eyes.

Warriors:

Blinkeye, gray tabby tom with squinting eyes.

Boldflight, dusty silver tom. Formerly a house cat.

Sea-eyes, dark golden tabby she-cat with bright blue eyes. Formerly of ShadowClan. _{{canon parents: Ferretflight (dcsd.) and Pinetail (dcsd.) }}_

Addertooth, light brown tabby tom with white paws and a pure white tail. _{{canon grandparents: Leaftail (dcsd.) and Gorsetail (dcsd.)}}_

Shimmertail, white she-cat. Half RiverClan.

Darkfur, dark brown and black tortoiseshell she-cat. Half RiverClan.

Whisperpath, light gray and white tom. Apprentice, Flowerpaw.

Skyheart, blue-gray she-cat with white paws and underbelly and missing right eye. Formerly a loner.

Tornear, long-haired dark brown tom.

Honeyfur, pale golden-furred she-cat.

Runningstorm, gray-brown tom with golden eyes and white underbelly.

Brooksong, striking silver she-cat with bright blue eyes. _{{canon grandparents: Ferretflight (dcsd.) and Pinetail (dcsd.) }}_

Apprentices:

Cedarpaw, sturdy brown tabby tom with amber eyes.

Buzzardpaw, brown tom with a tabby-striped tail and golden eyes.

Cloverpaw, golden tabby she-cat with green eyes. Half loner.

Flowerpaw, small golden tabby-and-white she-cat with amber eyes. Half loner.

Queens and Kits:

Fallenfeather, pretty tabby. Formerly a house cat.

Birdkit (tabby tom) and Flurrykit (gray, cream, and white tom) (Callflight's kits). Half loner.

Elders:

Beetail, golden tom with a distinctive black-striped fluffy tail. _{{canon parents: Leaftail and Gorsetail}}_

**RiverClan**

Leader: Mallowstar, very old light brown tabby tom. _{{canon character}}_

Deputy: Nightgaze, black and white she-cat.

Medicine Cat: Wingfur, mottled tortoiseshell tom with a white muzzle.

Warriors:

Cloudshade, long-furred gray and white tom. _Former member of New BloodClan._

Harefoot, light brown tabby and silver tom with big blue eyes.

Dawneyes, ginger and white she-cat with uncommon golden eyes. Formerly a house cat.

Ebonyfoot, dull gray tom with black paws and tail. Formerly a rogue.

Marshclaw, sleek black tom.

Wolffang, gray-furred she-cat with pale blue eyes.

Swiftwind, dark tortoiseshell she-cat.

Brownheart, tall dark brown tom with blue eyes.

Frostspot, tiny white she-cat with yellow eyes. Half rogue.

Rainpool, dappled gray she-cat.

Heronflight, blue-gray and white tom.

Apprentices:

Swanpaw, sleek black she-cat with yellow eyes.

Kitepaw, fluffy black and silver spotted tom with yellowish-green eyes.

Creekpaw, brown tom with amber eyes. Formerly a loner.

Moonpaw, light silver she-cat with big blue eyes.

Queens and Kits:

Poolnose, blue-gray queen with a silver muzzle. Half house cat.

Elders:

Grasspelt, light brown tom. One of the oldest cats in the Clans; blind and almost totally deaf. _{{canon character}}_

**Cats Outside of Clans**

Brownie, fluffy dark brown tom. _House cat._

Spots/Spotty, white she-cat with gray and brown dapples. _House cat._

Chocolate, dark brown and white tom. _House cat._

Plum, elderly tabby she-cat. _House cat, formerly of ThunderClan. Former member of New LionClan._

Mousepelt, pale silvery gray tom with blue eyes. _In hiding, formerly of ThunderClan. Thought to be dead. Former member of New LionClan. {{canon grandparents: Dustpelt (dcsd.) and Ferncloud (dcsd.) }} _

Blacknose, rough-pelted dull black tom with pale yellow eyes. _In exile, formerly of ThunderClan. Thought to have been a member of New BloodClan. Former member of New LionClan. {{canon parent: Starlingbone (dcsd.) }} _

Warcall, long-furred black, golden tabby, and white she-cat with one yellow and one blue eye. _In exile, formerly of ShadowClan. Former member of New BloodClan. {{canon parents: Ferretflight (dcsd.) and Pinetail (dcsd.) }} _

Rockfang, dark brown tom with amber eyes. _In exile, formerly of ShadowClan. Former member of New BloodClan._

Rapidstep, dark brown and black tom with golden eyes. _In exile, formerly of ShadowClan. Former member of New BloodClan._

Furyclaw, dark gray she-cat with black stripes. _In exile, formerly of ShadowClan. Former member of New BloodClan._

Crowtooth, dark gray tom with black stripes. _In exile, formerly of ShadowClan. Former member of New BloodClan. _

Skullstar/Darkstar, pitch black tom with ice-blue eyes. Half loner. _Formerly of ShadowClan. Former leader of New BloodClan. {{canon parent: Dawnpelt}} _

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><p><span>Prologue :: Twolegplace  Forest

"What are you doing here?" A snarl burst from behind a bush, and a fluffy brown tom came stalking out, his bristling fur making him appear to be even fluffier.

Two cats, who had been in the process of crossing the tom's lawn, turned to face him, tails and ears up, alert and ready in the event of an attack. The larger cat, a big tom, his fur a soft golden in the late leaf-fall harvest moon, was the first to relax. "That wouldn't happen to be you, Brownie, would it?" he mewed, peering at the average-sized tom, who he towered over by about a head.

The dark brown tom hesitated. "Depends on who's asking. Why do you want to know?" he asked, padding a little closer and allowing his fur to lie flat. His ears remained pinned to his head.

The big golden tom, whose name was Lionstar, glanced at the cat beside him. "Somebody told me to look for him," he replied, tail flicking nonchalantly.

"Who told you?" inquired the dark brown cat, ears now pricked up in interest.

"Someone whose name you probably wouldn't recognize. Does 'Jayfeather' mean anything to you?" When the house cat's face remained blank, Lionstar sighed and nodded. "I wouldn't expect it to. Is your mate around? ...I assume you _are_ Brownie, that is correct, isn't it?"

Slowly, the house cat nodded. "Yes, that would be me, I suppose. I'll go see if Spotty's awake." He turned and darted away.

Lionstar looked at the cat next to him again. "Well, that went more smoothly than either of us expected, I suppose," he grunted.

The skinny gray tabby's ears flicked, her yellow eyes glinting shrewdly. "You haven't told him the important part yet," she pointed out. "He'll not be as helpful once you have."

"Hmm...you never know," Lionstar reminded his deputy, scratching his ear thoughtfully for a moment. The two cats sat together in silence for a while, until the she-cat, Olivefall, finally spoke.

"Did you think it was quite _wise_, leaving the Clan alone together?"

"It's important that we come and make sure everything goes smoothly, Olivefall," Lionstar reminded her. "I thought Jayfeather had driven that idea into both our heads quite firmly." The big tom's silver whiskers twitched.

"Well, yes, he certainly did that," muttered Olivefall, her whiskers twitching as well in spite of herself. "But still, how do you know that...oh, I don't know... What if ShadowClan attack?"

"Jayfeather is certain that they won't. I agree with him on this point, actually."

Olivefall's eyes narrowed. "Why?" The word hung in the thick silence for a moment.

"They have no leader, no deputy, no real voice of authority to follow at this time," Lionstar began. Olivefall interrupted him before he could say anything more.

"They have several voices of authority to follow," she pointed out sharply. "Cats who haven't been chased away or exiled by the rest of us, cats who, as we both know, were quite important members of New BloodClan." She paused and looked at Lionstar.

Lionstar's tail flicked again, and he slowly mewed, "That _is_ true. But - I think you noticed that Jayfeather dashed out of camp in a mad frenzy earlier tonight?"

"After he'd finished driving the idea that we both had to come and make sure little Otterkit was safe with his relatives into our heads, yes, I do remember him doing that." A pause. "Where was he going?"

"Alert as always, Olivefall," Lionstar acknowledged, dipping his head slightly to his deputy before continuing. "I am not quite sure, but from certain...information...I gathered from him, I believe he was heading to ShadowClan."

Olivefall's neck fur stood up. "_Why?_"

"To make sure their new leader was properly ready and on his way to the Moonpool."

Slowly Olivefall relaxed, but her eyes were still perplexed. "I know your brother's penchant for meddling in other Clans' affairs. StarClan knows, you do it too, and strangely enough nobody seems to mind. But who, in StarClan's name, would either of you want to be ShadowClan leader so badly that would cause Jayfeather to go tearing away into enemy territory as soon as possible?"

"Rather frankly, it was more who we _didn't_ want to be leader that drove him at first. Obviously, Eagletalon is still in the Clan, and although he certainly isn't another Skullstar - " Olivefall flinched perceptibly " - he is most certainly one of the last cats anybody would want to have leading a Clan, let alone ShadowClan."

"So who did you two pick out?" Olivefall meowed a bit grumpily. "Somebody they'd like, I hope. ShadowClan hardly tolerate the meddling of you both as it is. If you go pick out, oh, I don't know, some random house cat, they'll be at war with us before you can blink."

"Jayfeather already had somebody in mind," Lionstar assured her. "Actually, as a matter of fact, we both had the same idea. Snakewhisker," he mewed in answer to her questioning glance.

Olivefall didn't react for a moment. She met her leader's gaze, then blinked slowly. "He's a medicine cat apprentice," she stated, then, as Lionstar started to interrupt, she held up her tail. "_But_ you could have done much worse, in _my_ mind. Why did you choose him?"

"As I said already, ShadowClan need someone they trust to lead them. And according to Jayfeather, we need somebody we trust to lead them. Well, that left only one cat for the job. Jayfeather doesn't think a medicine cat becoming leader will upset anybody - warriors can become medicine cats, medicine cat apprentices can switch back to being warriors, it shouldn't bother StarClan too much." He noticed Olivefall's slightly scandalized look, and added hurriedly, "Jayfeather's words, not mine."

"Very well," Olivefall mewed, stretching. "If the two of you think he can be trusted to not murder us in our sleep, I suppose I'll agree with you. I met the youngster once or twice back when he was still a 'paw. Typical ShadowClan cat, but not exceedingly _evil,_ as far as I could tell. They say, however," she added, "that he was a member of New BloodClan."

"They say many things, Olivefall," Lionstar replied, his tail twitching.

"Yes, and some of the things they say are true, and some aren't. The bottom line is, though, can he be trusted?" Yet again, Olivefall's tail rose to stop her leader from answering. "You say that he can be. Very well. I believe you." She lowered her tail. For a moment her head tilted slightly to one side, as if she was curious about something, but she sighed and shook out her fur, as if shaking off the question.

"Mmm." Lionstar blinked slowly as the conversation lagged.

Olivefall broke the silence. "So. When d'you think Molewhisker will get here?"

"It may be a while yet," Lionstar meowed. "He'll have to disentangle poor Otterkit from his future Clanmates' concerned embraces, and that's no small job." The golden tabby stopped speaking and flicked his ears towards the Twoleg nest. "Brownie's coming back, and I think he's persuaded his mate to come out."

Olivefall turned and looked towards the nest with interest. Sure enough, two cats were stepping gingerly across the frosty grass towards Lionstar and herself.

"Poor little fellow," Amberlight mewed softly, grooming the top of the dark silver kit's head as she spoke. "Both parents dead, and about to be sent off to live with the _house cats_ - I wonder how Lionstar can live with himself, I really do..."

"Heartleap and Otterstrike wanted to raise the two green-eyed kits away from the Clans anyway," mewed a tired-looking gray tom from the corner of the nursery. "Even if the threat of New BloodClan had been removed in some way, I think they wouldn't've brought Featherkit and Otterkit back. Can you imagine what life would have been like for those two here, where everyone would've heard about who one of them was, what one of them had the power to do... Not to mention that every cat would have tried to find out which one of them was the chosen one, not excluding the kits themselves." He sighed. "Believe me, Amberlight, I wish he was staying as much as you do. Perhaps even more. He's my kin - almost the only kin I have left now. But he has kin in Twolegplace as well. The house cats..." Wolfpelt trailed off, but took a deep breath and managed to finish. "The house cats will take care of him."

"Hmph. House cats," muttered Amberlight, eyes narrowing.

"If Lionstar thinks it's a good idea, I, for one, am with him." Molewhisker's voice resonated through the nursery as he spoke from the entrance. "I was his apprentice. I know him better than many of you do. He was part of a prophecy as well, or have you all forgotten? He and Jayfeather know what to do."

"I suppose you're right, Molewhisker," Flamestreak agreed slowly. He nudged his mate's shoulder. "Amberlight, we're going to have to let him go."

Amberlight sighed and looked down at the silver kit, his pelt next to Gingerkit's and Weaselkit's looking like smoke in a fire. "I know," she murmured.

"Best not put it off too long." Wolfpelt blinked once, golden eyes gleaming with unspoken thoughts. "Lionstar's waiting for you in Twolegplace, isn't he, Molewhisker?"

"Yes," Molewhisker mewed, pushing his broad shoulders through the nursery entrance with some difficulty. "I think I ought to take him now."

For a moment it looked as if Amberlight was going to challenge the senior warrior, but she closed her eyes slowly. "All right."

Ever so gently, Molewhisker crouched down and gripped Otterkit's scruff in his teeth. As he carried his precious burden slowly out of camp, silhouetted against the dusty glow of the fast-fading leaf-fall sunset, he felt the eyes of all the Clan on him. Even so, no cat moved to stop him or protest Otterkit's departure.

They were letting Otterkit go, certain that he would return one day to save them.

The two house cats were bristling, but the worst of their anger had passed. Lionstar breathed a barely audible sigh of relief. "So...you will take care of Otterkit...?" he inquired, almost - but not quite - tentatively. He wished Jayfeather had come instead of him. Olivefall had been helpful, though, almost as helpful as Jayfeather would have been under such circumstances, and for this the golden tom was grateful.

Brownie didn't answer, seeming to swell with rage, but Spots mewed curtly, "Yes. We will."

"Thank you," Lionstar mewed in enormous relief, dipping his head. "I'm sure Molewhisker will be here with him shortly."

The words were barely out of the ThunderClan leader's mouth when there was a patter of paws. A huge cat erupted out of the darkness, coming to a swift halt next to Lionstar.

Amazed - and probably more than a little frightened, Lionstar reflected wryly - the two house cats stared up at the big, thick-furred Molewhisker, who was even taller than his former mentor.

Paying the house cats no mind, Molewhisker crouched and gently set Otterkit down on the grass. "He's here," the warrior mewed, with an air of finality.

"Indeed," Olivefall observed, then turned her fang-sharp gaze on the house cats, who flinched slightly.

"Well," Lionstar mewed, nudging the gray kit, "he seems to be none the worse for wear."

"His cheek," the gray tabby deputy mewed flatly. "It's cut."

"Yes, yes. I don't think it was a cat's claws that did it - neither did Jayfeather. It was some Twoleg contraption - ah, what's the word - it's like ice, clear and sharp and cold - you can see through it - "

"Glass," Brownie grunted.

"Thank you. Glass," Lionstar meowed courteously. "That's what did it. Apparently...Heartleap broke through some, jumping out of the Twoleg nest, we really don't know for sure what happened, but..." The leader trailed off into a miserable silence. Brownie looked bored, while Spots shifted uncomfortably. Molewhisker snuffled into his oversized paw, and Olivefall turned her head to the side, blinking furiously.

"And nobody thought to take care of it?" the deputy asked suddenly, her head whipping back around to allow her to stare at Lionstar.

"It won't become infected. Jayfeather found the time to put some marigold on it before he left."

Olivefall muttered something about _Smokemist_ and _legends_ and _Goosefeather_ and _just plain crazy_, but the rest of what she said wasn't decipherable.

"Yes, I expect Smokemist was under rather a lot of stress at the time," Lionstar meowed amiably, as he turned to Brownie and Spots, effectively tuning out his deputy. "Anyhow, here he is. Otterkit."

Brownie and Spots exchanged doubtful glances. Then, slowly, Spots reached out and tentatively lifted the silvery-gray kit in her jaws. She stepped back, stared wide-eyed at the Clan cats for a moment, then whirled and dashed back into the house. Brownie followed without looking at the three.

"Well, that's that," Olivefall mewed, her eyes following Spots and Otterkit until they entered the nest. "That is that."

"Indeed it is," Lionstar muttered, turning away from his deputy and former apprentice. "Do you mind if I take a longer route home? I would appreciate having some time to...mull things over."

"Of course we don't mind, Lionstar," Molewhisker answered immediately.

"We don't," affirmed Olivefall.

"Thank you, my friends." The golden tabby turned and padded up the small, silent Thunderpath slowly. "I shall be back in the Clan by sunhigh."

"We ought to make it before dawn if we hurry - it's just about midnight," Olivefall murmured to Molewhisker. "Come on."

The two ThunderClan warriors slipped away in the opposite direction, and the darkness slowly swallowed their retreating forms.

"Aaaah, ShadowClan territory markers," Olivefall mewed, letting out a gusty sigh of relief. "I never thought I'd see the day when I was glad to scent a ShadowClan territory marker, but here we are, and here it is."

"Yes, we'll definitely make it back to ThunderClan before dawn if we hurry," Molewhisker meowed in assent. Then he added, "We'd make better time if we cut through ShadowClan..."

Olivefall cast a half-reproachful, half-surprised and delighted look at her friend. "I'm not sure about that, Molewhisker," she muttered.

"Why not? I doubt they'll have patrols as usual, so we won't get _caught_," Molewhisker began, getting into his element as his deputy let him speak without interruption, "and they can hardly object to us crossing their territory when we're returning from an important mission that has bearings on the fate of all the Clans - "

"It was hardly _that_," Olivefall grumbled, but she looked faintly interested. "Go on."

"Well, all I was going to say was that, I honestly don't see them catching us. And if by any chance we were caught, I'm sure they'd let us go."

Olivefall's furry brow creased in thought for a moment. Then she decided quickly. "Okay, let's go, Molewhisker."

"Wha'?" His face was a picture of comedic shock.

"Let's _go_." The deputy pointed with her tail. "Through ShadowClan territory."

"Really?"

"It was your idea, wasn't it? Come on."

As the two cats trekked across the unfamiliar territory, the sky lightened to gray. A single bird started to sing overhead - probably one of the last songbirds left in any of the territories, Olivefall thought, as she felt the bite of the late leaf-fall wind. There was a flash of red to her right. Ah, that explained it - a cardinal. They never seemed to leave.

"It'll be strange back in camp," Molewhisker mumbled, half to himself, as they walked.

"I suppose you're right," Olivefall sighed. "Do we celebrate _his_ apparent death, or do we mourn Heartleap, Otterstrike, and Featherkit? Do we do both?"

"The other Clans'll be celebrating, I expect," her companion reflected.

"The other Clans haven't lost Clanmates," Olivefall retorted in a harsher voice than she'd meant to. "Sorry, Molewhisker," she added hurriedly. "I didn't mean to snap at you." As they continued on, frost crackling as their paws left clear prints in it, she mewed reflectively, "You were right about the ShadowClan patrols, Molewhisker. I haven't seen hide nor hair of any living thing besides you and that bird... Apparently nobody's up and about so early."

"I wouldn't be so sure." Without a sound, a long-furred black tom stepped out of the shadows to Olivefall's left.

Molewhisker hissed in alarm. Olivefall winced and cast a glance in the direction of ThunderClan territory. She thought she could see a tree that marked the border. They had almost gotten there...

"Snakewhisker," she mewed, calming down a bit as she recognized the cat. She dipped her head slightly.

"Snake_star_," he corrected icily, lifting his chin a bit.

"Of course," she responded, tail twitching. "My warrior and I were just on our way to ThunderClan territory. If you'll excuse us, now - "

Surprisingly, Snakestar stepped aside, hardly even glaring. Olivefall chanced a glance at him as she hurried towards her own territory. The new ShadowClan leader looked exhausted. With a bit of a pang, she remembered when Lionstar had come back to camp after receiving his nine lives, the night after the battle with the Dark Forest. He had been so tired he could barely stay awake long enough to name her deputy.

As soon as she and Molewhisker were safely on their own side of the border, Olivefall turned back to face Snakestar, who had followed them to the border. "I can explain our presence on your territory, of course - "

"No need," the ShadowClan tom cut her off again dismissively, eyes narrowed. "Jayfeather has already done so. As a matter of fact, I was rather _expecting_ to find some ThunderClan strays on my territory."

Olivefall felt a spark of indignance, but she quelled it. Technically she had been the one in the wrong, much as it bothered her to admit that. "Well. I wish you the best of luck with your Clan, I'm sure." He was going to need it, she added to herself silently.

Snakestar nodded - not even having the decency for a proper thank-you - and turned. His black tail whisked once before he darted back into his own territory, silent as a shadow.

"Well!" Molewhisker murmured. "That was close."

"Yes, it was," Olivefall agreed. "Remind me never to listen to you again."

Molewhisker chuckled as they forged a path further into their territory. When they reached the camp, Jayfeather would be there. When they reached the camp, all would be made well.

As the Clans celebrated and mourned and rebuilt and adjusted, the fire of a new dawn began to burn on the mountains.


	2. Chapter 1: Grace of Twolegplace

Chapter One :: Molewhisker of ThunderClan / Grace of Twolegplace 

It was early newleaf - _very_ early newleaf. The weather had begun to warm up later than usual, and as often as not the mornings were still all fire and ice, slender green branches and new blades of grass sheathed in thin layers of frost, their near-transparent edges seeming to burst into flame when the sun touched them. Of course, the frost melted away long before sunhigh, but a few of the cutting breezes that always managed to slither into the warriors' den every night remained to chill. Pockets of cold air could be found in any shady spot - under ledges in camp, in secluded mossy hollows between the roots of soaring oaks, sneaking out of tunnels that in seasons past had been the dens of foxes, rabbits, and badgers.

Molewhisker was not ashamed to admit that he thanked StarClan for his thick, warm pelt during weather like this. As the immense brown-and-cream tom prowled through the forest, frosty grass and the skeletons of long-dead leaves crackling under his paws, he barely felt the early-morning breezes sliding through his long fur. What would have seemed like a claw of ice raking the skin to any other cat in this weather was only a passing cool caress of the fur to him. The ThunderClan warrior guessed that this was why he'd been sent out to fetch the new apprentices. There were several other factors, of course - he was ThunderClan's most senior warrior, he had been Lionstar's apprentice, he knew where both of the apprentices-to-be lived - but the pelt was one of the more important reasons. Molewhisker was certain of it.

He had set out before dawn, when the sky was a deep blueish purple, the color of the depths of the lake under an overcast sky. There had been a barely discernible line of pale rose edging the tops of the mountains that quickly expanded as he walked. Now he was almost out of ThunderClan territory, and nearly half of the sky was that pale rose color, marbled with lavender and white clouds, streaked with crimson and gold nearest to where the sun was already mostly visible above the mountains. Molewhisker paused for a moment, admiring the magnificent dawn, his slow, deep exhalations creating misty clouds that rose on the cold breezes and soon evaporated into the air.

The sun had risen high enough to light up nearly the entire sky by the time Molewhisker realized that he needed to hurry if he wanted to have both the apprentices back at camp before dusk. Shaking out his pelt, the warrior yawned noisily and blinked dazedly, distracted momentarily by the thousand tiny, fluttering pieces of sundust that danced so chaotically in the light of the rays that slanted through the trees - but the moment passed, and Molewhisker hurried on his way, determined not to let himself stop for a catnap again.

...

Being himself - and even Molewhisker had admitted this truth to himself long ago - the cream-and-brown warrior did indeed stop several more times to rest in the warmth of the quickly ascending sun, but each time he finished his nap, he went on with a firmer resolve to be home by sundown. He knew for a fact that Lavenderpaw and Foxpaw would be waiting up for the two new arrivals, no matter what their mother said, and they would most likely be able to persuade the slightly younger apprentices, Weaselpaw and Gingerpaw, to stay awake as well. There was no telling what Longpaw would do, but he'd most likely wait for the new apprentices with the others if they asked him. Molewhisker shook his head, scratched his neck slowly and thoughtfully with a hind claw, and continued on.

By the time the sun had reached its zenith, Molewhisker had reached Twolegplace. Now - just around sunhigh - was the time when he felt less thankful to StarClan for that warm coat of his, and was more inclined to ask whomever had given this to him why it didn't shed a little bit faster in newleaf. Huffing and puffing, Molewhisker padded slowly out of the last fringes of forest and found himself on a vaguely familiar Thunderpath. He had been here several days ago with Olivefall, and five moons ago he had departed from this very place after leaving Otterkit with his kin, again with Olivefall.

"Now, which way do we go?" he mumbled to himself, glancing up and down the small Thunderpath, still panting slightly. "Let's see...yes...yes, that's right, I think...we go right here, then left, and right again, and left again...I'm certain that's what Olivefall did..." Shaking his huge, furry head in good-natured bemusement, Molewhisker flopped down on the pavement, making sure to keep an ear cocked and alert in case of a monster's approach. "But I think I'll just...take...a bit of a rest here in the shade first..."

As sunhigh wore on, Molewhisker napped with one eye open and one eye closed, one ear flopped and one perked up alertly. To any onlooker, he would have seemed dead to the world, but in honesty the ThunderClan warrior was anything but. Easily exhaustable though he might be, Molewhisker was not a bumbling idiot. He had been Lionstar's apprentice, and knew just as many battle moves and strategies as any deputy - and then some. If by any chance he was attacked, Molewhisker would be ready to fight back in the flick of a whisker.

* * *

><p>"Is Molewhisker here yet?" The fretful question seemed to echo through the empty Twolegplace. "Do you see him, Dad?"<p>

"No, Grace, but I'm sure he'll get here soon." The voice that drifted down from the dark brown tom perched on the windowsill was tinged with weariness - it was obvious that the house cat had answered this question several times already.

"I hope so," murmured Grace, blinking into the dusty ray of sunlight that spilled through the front window of the house, tinging the tips of her fur a faint amber-gold. "I don't know how long it takes to get to the forest, but I'm sure that the sooner he gets here, the better. I've heard all sorts of stories about animals out in the forests at night, and although warriors can most likely fend them off, I'm not sure how much good one warrior and two prospective apprentices would be against a hungry badger. Oh, I'm not scared, but it would be more practical for him to get here sooner. You see -" The light brown she-cat was interrupted before she could continue her speech.

"Grace? Are you sure you don't want to eat something before you go?" The question was asked by a pale tabby she-cat sitting in the same ray of sunlight next to her daughter. She looked a bit more nervous than her mate, who was currently watching the road for Molewhisker.

"Oh...er...no. I know it would be practical to eat, but I'm not sure my stomach could hold it, and besides, the warrior code says 'A warrior rejects the soft life of a house cat', and I thought that as I was promised to ThunderClan, I ought to wait and eat when I got there. But thanks for offering, Mom," Grace added hurriedly, seeing a faint light of hurt in her mother's eyes. She nudged the bigger she-cat affectionately, breathing in her comforting scent. "I promise I'll visit whenever I can. I'm not going to forget you or Dad, and it's not like - I mean, I'm not...not running away, I just..." Grace trailed off breathlessly, not sure what she was doing if not running away.

"I understand," her mother whispered, leaning down to nuzzle her daughter's soft fur. "You feel like this is what you're meant to do, don't you?"

"Your destiny," rumbled Grace's father, turning away from the window.

_Meant to do? Destiny?_ Grace's ears twitched uncomfortably. She wasn't sure if she really _believed_ in destiny. It was a strange concept, and whether it existed or not, Grace wasn't sure if she even liked it. But it was the most accurate description of the feeling she was trying to express at the moment. Pulling away from her mother, Grace blinked up into the other she-cat's light blue eyes. "I...I guess," she murmured, then turned her head away, valiantly trying not to have a breakdown right now. Why, Molewhisker could get here any minute, and she didn't want the warrior to see her wailing like a stupid kit, did she?

Her father finally broke the awkward silence. "So...you're sure you don't want to eat, Grace?" he mewed.

"I - I'm sure, Dad," she replied quietly, shifting her weight from side to side. "I'm okay. Just keep watching, okay? Molewhisker might get lost or something, and you would have to run out and get him before he passes by our house. I remember when I was going to find Shady's house, I got lost, and I couldn't tell which way to go, and I kept hoping that maybe she would be watching for me from the window, and then I _finally_ found her street, and I was walking up and down it looking for her house, but I didn't see her or smell her, and she didn't come out to get me, and I had to go back home on my own..." Grace blinked slowly and looked at her paws. "And then later I found out it had been a trick, and she didn't live there at all," she finished, in a small and quiet voice. "Maybe the ThunderClan cats will like me better than the other house cats."

"For all your rule-following and your sticking to facts, Grace, you have a wandering spirit." The thoughtful voice drifted down from the cat silhouetted in the window yet again. "Ever since your eyes opened, you've been running around, sticking your nose into everything. Remember last month when you were obsessed with the outdoors? Robin, do you remember that?"

Grace's mother purred and flicked Grace affectionately with her tail. "Yes, indeed I do," she replied. "I think we stayed up all night the first few times she decided to sleep up in the tree, Jasper. But of course you were all right by yourself, Grace."

"Yeah..." Grace agreed hesitantly. "I guess that's why I wanted to join the Clan in the first place, because it was an adventure, and it was outside, but then I saw that I - that I - that it was something that I maybe was, well, _meant_ to do." She used the phrase with an uncomfortable feeling, reminding herself yet again that destiny and fate were risky things to flirt with. "I mean, you guys - you - Mom and Dad - you said that you thought I should join them...that it might be good for me, that it might give me something that I'd never get here." The she-cat lifted one fluffy brown forepaw and absentmindedly batted at the shiny tags hanging from her collar.

"We did say that," Jasper chuckled, closing his eyes halfway as he looked down at his daughter and mate. "You have an amazing memory, you know that, Grace? Whatever else those Clan cats change about you - eating bones, drinking blood, all that - "

"_Jasper,_" Robin mewed in chastisement, though her whiskers were twitching.

"Da-ad," Grace groaned.

"You know what I mean," the dark brown house cat hurriedly meowed. "But what I really want to say is, _don't_ let them change that about you. Keep your brilliant mind sharp, eh?"

"I know, Dad, I will," the little brown she-cat replied earnestly, her dark amber eyes glowing. "There will be so much to learn! I've only got some of the warrior code down, and I just know the very recent history of the Clans. I want to know _everything_ - about the old territory and Bluestar and the great Clans and Fourtrees and the Moonstone and...and...and...and everything," she finished a bit lamely. Then, perking up a bit, she added, "Then when I come to visit you and Mom I can tell you all the stories, right?"

"Of course," purred Robin, nudging Grace's cheek.

The quiet moment lasted a few heartbeats longer, until Grace noticed that her father was still watching her and her mother. "_Dad,_" she squawked indignantly, crouching and leaping awkwardly towards him. She managed to get the front half of her body on the broad white windowsill, and hurriedly scrabbled her paws in the air, occasionally hitting the wall, propelling herself slowly but surely forwards until she collapsed on the windowsill, a panting heap of light and dark brown fur. As soon as she'd gotten her breath back, Grace hopped to her feet and glared at Jasper as she turned towards the window. "Dad, you're supposed to be watching for Molewhisker. He could be coming along any moment - " Grace took a breath and looked out the window " - from _that_ way, or - or from over _there_, and - and - who's _that_?" Her voice shot up into a squeal on the last word as she stared breathlessly out the window at the barely discernible - yet obviously feline - figure in the distance. "Is that him?"

"I can't think of anyone else it could be, to be honest," Jasper grunted in his logical, roundabout manner - but Grace had already leaped from the windowsill, letting a short squeak escape her as she landed on the polished wood floor. Her claws clicked against it as she searched for a foothold, then bounded towards the cat door in the back, yowling, "Mom, Dad, _come on_! Hurry up!"

As the sound of the swinging cat flap faded, Jasper chuckled and pounced off of the windowsill, landing neatly next to Robin. "There she goes," he purred.

Robin shook her head, half purring, half sighing. "Our little kit...starting to grow up already."

...

By the time her parents got outside, Grace was already chattering enthusiastically to Molewhisker, who she'd met once before. "Will we be able to get to camp by nightfall? Will you catch us something to eat or will we have to wait and eat at the freshkill pile? Where's the other cat who's going to be an apprentice - the one who used to be a Clan cat but isn't now? Are we going to get him?" the brown she-cat demanded all in one breath, fur sticking out at all angles.

Molewhisker chuckled and patted Grace's head with one massive brown-and-cream paw. "Let's catch those mice when we come to them," he told her as he turned to greet Jasper and Robin with a dip of his head.

"Hello, Molewhisker!" Jasper meowed, ears twitching. "Have you come to fetch Grace?"

"That I have," rumbled the ThunderClan warrior.

Robin stepped forward. "You're a bit later than you said you'd be," she observed.

"Well, that I am," Molewhisker admitted, scratching behind his ear nervously. "Grace and I will need to travel rather quickly if we're going to be able to get to the camp before dark."

The pale tabby she-cat took a deep, trembling breath and turned slowly to her daughter. "Well then, Grace, I think we should say our goodbyes now. No use in putting it off, is there?"

"No," Grace murmured softly. Then all of a sudden, the steadfast little brown kitten emitted a half-squeal, half-whimper, and flung herself against her mother, pressing her muzzle into the creamy fur and inhaling the familiar scent, taking deep breaths over and over. Robin, almost overcome by emotion, curled her tail tightly around her kit.

"Shh, Grace," the she-cat murmured. "It'll be okay. This is what you want, isn't it?"

Grace pulled away from Robin, blinking furiously. "Yes," she whispered, then held her head up and meowed it louder. "Yes."

The kitten felt a tail brush over her back, and a moment later she found that her father had pulled her to him with one gentle forepaw. As she had done with her mother, Grace buried her face in his fur and breathed in his comforting scent.

"Gracy, girl," Jasper whispered in her ear, "with all that remembering, I daresay you'll have a lot on your mind, but you won't forget your dear old dad, will you?"

With a funny choking half-purr, Grace looked up at her father, amber eyes brimming with emotion. "Never," she said softly. "I won't ever forget either of you."

And it seemed to the young she-cat that this was the breakaway point, the moment when she would take the first step in the journey, leaving her home, her family, and all her almost-friends, the cats she had known her entire life. If she ever came back, she would not be the same. They would not be the same. She would be a Clan cat (she hoped her apprentice name would be Gracepaw, but anything would be wonderful, just as long as she was accepted), and Jasper and Robin would be house cats, who could never really understand it all.

"Right, then," Molewhisker rumbled. "Are you ready to go, Grace?" His gaze moved slowly over her and her parents.

"Yes," Grace mewed clearly, stepping bravely away from the shelter of Jasper's big, dependable form. "I'm ready."

And so Molewhisker and Grace left the only home that Grace had ever known, looking back just once to call a last goodbye to Grace's parents before continuing on their journey. Grace had made her decision, and though someplace in her heart cried out for her parents and her home, she knew somehow that this was the right thing to do.

...

Grace couldn't help herself - even in the solemnity of the moment, the brown she-cat's mind was buzzing with questions. She managed to keep them in until Molewhisker reached the end of the street she lived on, but as they turned onto another road, the young house cat began to chatter away.

"So where are we going? It's another prospective apprentice's home, right? Didn't Olivefall say that he was Clanborn? He's living with his kin because his parents were killed by an evil cat, have I got that right? And he's really famous in the Clans, because he defeated the BloodClan leader somehow even though he was a kit...but how did he do that, I wonder? Maybe he remembers it. How old was he when it happened? Would it be insensitive of me to ask him about it? His name's Otterkit, right? But didn't you say that his father's name was Otterstrike? I guess he'll have a different warrior name, but I still think that was kind of a bad idea, giving him the same name. I'm not going to name my kits after anyone - well, maybe I might call one Robinkit, and I'd call one Jasperkit, because technically that is a Clan name, because Jasper is actually a stone, kind of like a crystal, did you know that? It's a Twoleg stone, they call it a gemstone, I heard my housefolk talking about it. I'm going to miss my housefolk - and my parents. I hope the apprentices like me." Here Grace stopped her barrage of inquisitions and took a deep breath, filling her empty lungs.

"Oh, I'm sure they'll get along just fine with you," Molewhisker reassured her, taking advantage of the she-cat's momentary silence. "They're wonderful young cats. Lavenderpaw - she's one of the oldest apprentices, nearly eight moons now - is very kind, a very nice cat indeed. Her brother Foxpaw is the same. He has a liking for myths and legends and Clan lore, I think you'll like him. Then there are Weaselpaw and Gingerpaw, who were just apprenticed a few days ago...Weaselpaw is quite the typical ThunderClan apprentice, as far as I can tell - adventurous, impetuous, brave, getting up to his whiskers in trouble more often than not. He's my apprentice. His sister, Gingerpaw - now she's a pawful." The cream-and-brown tom lifted his eyes to the sky as if attempting to silently convey to his ancestors that they needed to _do something_ about that Gingerpaw, then went on. "She gets into all kinds of trouble; has been doing that ever since she opened her eyes. Already she's gotten the other apprentices on her side - night before last, they _stole the freshkill pile._"

Grace's furry eyebrows arched. "How did they do that?" she exclaimed.

"According to Longpaw, they stayed up until midnight, then snuck out and took the freshkill into their den, piece by piece."

"But I thought the Clan had a guard - " Grace began, confused.

"We do. The cat on duty the night before last, however, was none other than the aforementioned Gingerpaw's older brother, Redfur. I wouldn't be surprised if he gave her the idea for the trick...the things he and Granitestripe - that's his brother - used to come up with...the things they _still_ come up with, for that matter... Anyways, whether the idea was his or not, he turned a blind eye to their little stunt." Molewhisker chuckled. "I can tell you, it was a great prank, if a little unoriginal."

"It doesn't sound very funny to _me_," meowed the little house cat, a bit self-righteously.

Molewhisker blinked in surprise, but then his whiskers twitched. "A rule follower, are you?" he asked jovially, flicking Grace with his tail. "I daresay we might need you in ThunderClan, seeing who's going to be in the apprentice den for the next five or six moons."

"Who? ...Besides Gingerpaw, I mean," Grace hurriedly clarified.

"Well, Weaselpaw and the others aren't the type to pass up a good fun idea, of course they aren't, but if personality is passed down from parent to kit..." The big ThunderClan warrior shook his head slowly, an almost devilish look of reminiscent bliss spreading over his face. "If it is, then the youngster we're going to get right now will most likely end up redefining the word _fun_ for ThunderClan apprentices - assuming you don't get in his way, of course."

"Really?" Grace queried. She tried to mask her unspoken _Oh dear..._

"Most likely," purred Molewhisker. "You should have been - Well, considering your personality, you probably _shouldn't_ have been in ThunderClan then, seeing as - "

"So where are we going, exactly?" asked Grace, cutting him off quite by accident.

Molewhisker's brow furrowed in confusion for a few moments, then his face cleared. "We need to keep going straight for a while yet," he told Grace. "Eventually we'll turn left, then right, then we'll take another left and go straight and we'll be there."

"Be where?"

"The Twoleg nest where Otterkit is."

"Okay. Will we get there before sunset? Will we be traveling in the dark? How long does it take to get to the ThunderClan camp? Do we get apprenticed as soon as we get there? Do you think that I'll be called Gracepaw, or something different? I hope I'm Gracepaw, that'll be easier to get used to."

"We won't travel in the dark," Molewhisker told her. "If nightfall comes before we reach ThunderClan territory, we'll stop and make camp for the night."

"Oh, all right," Grace meowed, and glanced up at the sky. "We'd better hurry then, right? It's already mid-afternoon..."

"Yes, we need to get a move on," agreed Molewhisker, tail twitching as he began to take longer strides. Grace increased her speed as well.

As the two cats padded further and further into the Twolegplace, the sun began to sink, ever so slowly. Shadows stretched to the east, criss-crossing the earth with dark lines and curves and blots, and the silver moon rose in the darkening sky.


	3. Chapter 2: Quailkit of ShadowClan

Chapter Two :: Quailkit of ShadowClan

"Lazy lump!" Quailkit yowled, pummeling her sister's furry side. "Come _on_! I want to go meet the dawn patrol!"

"Nooo," droned Asterkit, burrowing deeper into Splashfoot's long belly fur. "I'm tired...and it's _really_ cold. Go away an' stop hitting me."

"Spoilsport," muttered the fluffy little tabby-and-white she-cat under her breath, then mewed a bit louder in a cajoling tone, "Please, Asterkit? Pleeease?"

"Nope," Asterkit squeaked through the layers of belly fur that covered most of her head.

"Ferretpaw might be there..." Quailkit tempted, waggling her fuzzy kitty eyebrows. "I know how much you _luuuurve_ him. Who knows? You could even say hi to him."

"Shuddup," Asterkit yawned, but she tumbled away from Splashfoot's slumbering form, out of the warm nest and onto the colder nursery floor, and looked up at her sister in interest. "D'you really think he might be on the dawn patrol?"

"You never know until you check!" Quailkit meowed brightly, her tail fluffing up in excitement.

All of Asterkit's fur was starting to fluff up too, but not in excitement - in cold. The little ginger cat shivered, her teeth beginning to chatter. "It's kind of c-cold, Qu-Quailkit...maybe we could just p-p-peek out of the n-nursery and say h-h-hello to F-Ferretpaw if he's th-there?"

"Or we could go out to the fresh-kill pile while we say hi to him, and get Mama some fresh-kill," Quailkit suggested, eyes gleaming deviously.

"I...I dunno, Quailkit. I think I w-want to go b-b-back to sleep." Asterkit fluffed up her fur and huddled close to the nursery floor

"Ferretpaw!" squeaked Quailkit in desperation. "Ferretpaw Ferretpaw Ferretpaw! Think about Ferretpaw!"

To her surprise, Asterkit did not assume the usual dreamy-eyed demeanor that occurred when the cream-furred tom's name was repeated several times in a row. It seemed that she was just too cold to be in love - and if she wouldn't be in love, she wouldn't come outside, and Quailkit wasn't allowed to go outside without somebody else. The rule was just a precaution, having no logical basis besides the obvious "safety in numbers", but Quailkit had never questioned it, and didn't have a great desire to do so. Rules felt safe to Quailkit. Rules were _good._

"I'm _not_ coming," Asterkit mewed quite clearly, snuggling up against Splashfoot again. "You go out by yourself if you want to."

"You know I'm not allowed to!" Quailkit yelped, digging her claws into the moss bedding.

Her dark ginger sister rolled her eyes and yawned. "Then just go back to sleep."

"I'd rather stay up," replied Quailkit coolly, as she turned her back on Asterkit.

"Okay...whatever..." Asterkit's voice trailed off into a long, drawn-out snore.

Quailkit sighed exaggeratedly and flung herself down on the bedding, staring bleakly out of the nursery at the camp clearing beyond, where the dawn patrol would no doubt be appearing in practically no time. It wasn't _fair._

"Hi there, kit!"

The sudden noise made Quailkit jump, but she immediately relaxed when she saw a familiar face peering into the nursery at her. "Hi, Bramblepaw," she mewed, then added accusingly, "You scared me."

"Sorry, Quailkit," purred Bramblepaw, wriggling through the small entrance into the big den. "If I told you that I brought you some food, would you forgive me?" Her white whiskers twitched.

"We-ell..." Quailkit narrowed her eyes, wondering if she could get lucky. "I might forgive you for scaring me if you took me into the clearing to see the dawn patr - Wait, were you _on_ the dawn patrol?"

"Nah, not really," Bramblepaw mewed airily as she turned her back on Quailkit and stuck her head out of the nursery, probably to grab a piece of fresh-kill that she'd left outside. A few heartbeats later, she turned back to face Quailkit, amber eyes sparkling and a red-furred squirrel in her jaws. The senior apprentice dropped the squirrel at Quailkit's paws and mewed proudly, "Eagletalon and Squirreltail were assessing me!"

"Really?" Quailkit gasped, feeling a faint twinge of envy. "It was your _warrior_ assessment, wasn't it? You've been an apprentice for as long as I can remember."

"Yeah, it was," the apprentice told her proudly, ducking her tabby-striped head and grooming her white-furred chest for a moment before looking up again. "Tonight you'll have to call me - uh - Brambleheart, or Bramblefeather, or Bramblefrost...and I won't ever have to bring you little pests prey and bedding again!" She reached out and ruffled Quailkit's headfur with a white paw.

Quailkit smirked. "Yes, but tonight you'll have to sit out in the cold aaaaaall aloooone. D'you think that'll be very fun?" She ducked under Bramblepaw's foreleg and darted to the nursery entrance as she quickly changed the subject to more pressing matters. "Anyways, can we go out? Pleeease?"

Bramblepaw's whiskers twitched again. "Sure. Come on, Quailkit."

Whooping with delight, Quailkit sprang out of the nursery, then turned back and waited for Bramblepaw.

It was odd, Quailkit thought idly as she stood in the camp clearing with the chill breezes ruffling her fluffy kit fur, how Bramblepaw seemed almost like kin to her and Aspenkit at times, when they weren't related at all. The tabby-and-white apprentice even _looked_ a bit like Quailkit. Even stranger than her similar appearance was the way she acted towards Aspenkit and Quailkit, treating them more like younger siblings than stupid kits like the other apprentices did.

_Of course,_ Quailkit reminded herself, feeling a bit guilty for no identifiable reason, _she _isn't_ Clanborn. She probably misses her father, and maybe she likes us because we're not pure Clan cats either. _The kit blinked suddenly and hurriedly steered her thoughts away from the delicate subject of not being a full Clan cat. _Of course, she probably just likes kits. And we're the only kits, so she hangs out with us._ As these thoughts raced through her head, Quailkit's tabby tail twitched excitedly. _I wonder if Bramblepaw's going to get a mate when she becomes a warrior. Sure, not a lot of ShadowClan cats would want to mate with a - _gritting her teeth, Quailkit forced herself away from that subject again - _but there must be some tom she likes. And if Bramblepaw had kits, Aspenkit and I could play with them and take care of them like Bramblepaw does with us. That would be fun, and we could -_

The sound of Bramblepaw's voice abruptly ended Quailkit's conversation with herself. "Want to climb up there and watch for the dawn patrol?"

The tabby-and-white kit blinked and shook her fuzzy head. "Up where?"

"_There,_" snickered Bramblepaw, in a tone that suggested she was most likely joking. She pointed her white-tipped tail at the Highbranch. "Of course, you probably couldn't climb up there - "

"Bet I could!"

"Bet you couldn't." Bramblepaw's amber eyes glimmered mischievously - even though she was all of twelve moons old, she still lapsed into kit-like behavior surprisingly often.

Quailkit's forest-green eyes met the apprentice's determinedly. "Oh yeah? Watch me!" She set off resolutely towards the hollow tree that was Snakestar's den. _Of course I'm not _really_ going to climb up there, but it would be funny if Bramblepaw thought I was going to..._

As Quailkit had predicted, Bramblepaw started to shift from paw to paw as soon as the kit was halfway across the clearing. "Erm, Quailkit..."

"Uh-huh?" The tabby kit turned around, looking innocently at the apprentice. "What?"

"You...aren't really going to try and climb up on Highbranch, are you?"

In response, Quailkit spun on one white paw and continued to march across the clearing. "Yup!" she tossed over her shoulder cheerfully.

Bramblepaw sprang to her feet. "Hey, Quailkit, don't. I was just kidding."

"But I _want_ to climb on Highbranch," mewed Quailkit sweetly, continuing to walk slowly towards the tree.

"Seriously, Quailkit, _don't,_" growled Bramblepaw, bounding across the clearing to stand next to the tiny kit, who ignored her as she marched towards Highbranch. "I could get in a lot of trouble - "

"What for?"

"Eep!" Quailkit yelped, bouncing backwards and scurrying behind Bramblepaw's hind leg in the grip of her second fright that morning.

Bramblepaw was left to face their leader, who had apparently just leaped down from the Highbranch as silently as an owl in flight. "Oh - uh - good morning, Snakestar," she meowed, dipping her head hurriedly. "I - ahem - sort of...nothing."

The black-furred leader's tail flicked lazily as he let her words echo around the clearing for a moment. Then he arched a single furry eyebrow and mewed, "I certainly hope there wasn't any trouble on your night assessment." His penetrating dark blue gaze slid off of the apprentice and the kit hiding behind her, and moved on to Eagletalon and Squirreltail, who were talking quietly at the edge of the clearing - Quailkit hadn't seen them when she exited the nursery. "Eagletalon, Squirreltail, how did Bramblepaw do on her assessment?"

Eagletalon snorted quietly - Quailkit secretly suspected that he'd purposefully pitched the snort just loud enough to carry to Bramblepaw's ears - and Squirreltail glanced down at her russet brown paws. Neither of them spoke for a moment, and Bramblepaw winced, barely perceptibly. Finally Squirreltail glanced at Eagletalon and mewed, "My apprentice did very - "

"Bramblepaw did very poorly on her assessment," Eagletalon interrupted, his ice-blue eyes glittering.

Snakestar met and held the deputy's gaze coolly. "Is that so?" he asked, something in his tone seeming to imply an _I don't believe you._ Quailkit had often wondered what the cause of the ShadowClan authorities' frequent almost-fights was, but she hadn't yet found somebody she really wanted to ask.

"It is," mewed the deputy, maintaining eye contact. "After tramping around the forest for an _unbelievably_ long amount of time - " Bramblepaw's ears flattened in shame " - and frightening away what seemed like every piece of potential prey in the area, she finally managed to find a mouse. Not surprisingly, her hunting crouch was lazy and her stalking technique sloppy, and she missed the mouse. It's obvious that five moons of training have been wasted on this apprentice. You know what I always say - "

"Yes, we know what you always say, and I don't want it repeated in front of my apprentice again!" Squirreltail leaped to her paws, yellow eyes flashing furiously. "You've been muttering it under your breath all night, you bigot, and I don't care if you _are_ deputy, I swear to StarClan..." The dark ginger she-cat trailed off into a murderous mutter.

Bramblepaw's eyes were stretched wide, and Quailkit's felt like they were as well. She'd never seen Squirreltail lose her temper before - normally the queen was one of the kindest cats in camp. But, Quailkit thought a bit rebelliously, Eagletalon in a bad mood was too much for anybody to take. She couldn't help but wonder what it was that Eagletalon always said, though -

"What is it that you always say, Eagletalon?" Snakestar's voice was quiet, just whiskers away from what might be considered _threatening._ The fur on the back of Quailkit's neck prickled. She hated being around disagreeing Clanmates, and this situation seemed to be turning into a disagreement.

"What I always say?" Eagletalon rolled his eyes and paused for effect, before spitting in Bramblepaw's direction, "Once a house cat, always a house cat. _That's_ what I say."

With a little squeak of dismay, Bramblepaw flinched backwards. Squirreltail hissed softly under her breath, and Quailkit tucked her tail between her legs and wondered if she ought to go back to the nursery. But she wanted to see the outcome of this discussion, so she nervously decided to stay out for a while. Glancing at Squirreltail, the kit wondered if the warrior would continue to yowl at their deputy, but Squirreltail was silent and seemed to be almost surprised at herself for daring to speak against the deputy.

"Squirreltail." Snakestar abruptly turned his attention to Bramblepaw's mentor. "How did Bramblepaw's assessment go, in _your_ opinion?"

Squirreltail blinked and shot a half-nervous, half-rebellious glance at her deputy, then slowly mewed, "She did take a while to locate her first prey, but she was silent while she went about it. When she missed the mouse she recovered quickly from the pounce and quickly found another mouse to stalk. She efficiently brought down that mouse, two squirrels, and a dove. I think that my apprentice is perfectly capable of performing warrior duties, especially when I think back to her battle assessment yesterday." The russet she-cat blinked slowly. "That's how Bramblepaw's assessment went, in _my_ opinion."

The ShadowClan leader nodded and without a word turned away towards his den. He paused and beckoned to Eagletalon with his tail. The pale tabby tom glared at Bramblepaw and followed Snakestar to his den.

Eager to discuss what had just occurred, Quailkit turned eagerly to Bramblepaw, only to see that the tabby she-cat wasn't there anymore. Blinking in surprise, Quailkit swept the clearing with her gaze and just caught a glimpse of a striped tail disappearing into the apprentices' den. The kit looked to Squirreltail, hoping for an explanation.

The queen sighed and shook her head. "Some cats are beyond me, Quailkit," she murmured. "But Eagletalon _is_ the deputy. I shouldn't have spoken out like that. Don't ever follow my example, darlin'." With that, Squirreltail headed back to the warriors' den, leaving Quailkit standing in the clearing alone, the damp early morning mists curling around her.

_She's probably exhausted after getting up early to assess Bramblepaw,_ Quailkit thought regretfully as she looked back at the nursery. _I guess I'd better go back inside now...I'll get in trouble if a warrior catches me out alone. And - _the tabby kit stifled a yawn even as she thought it - _I _am_ tired..._

_..._

"Dawn patrol returning!"

Quailkit's head shot up as she hurriedly blinked the blurriness of sleep from her eyes. The mist had somewhat dissipated, and what remained was tinted a faint gold by the rays of sun that now slanted into the clearing. _Was I sleeping?_ wondered Quailkit as she rolled to her paws and looked towards the entrance into the camp, where Finchcall was pushing through the brambles that guarded the entrance into camp, his eyes gleaming merrily.

The dappled golden tom stifled a yawn as he stepped aside to let Wetwhisker, Yewleaf, Pebblepaw, and Ferretpaw - _So he _was_ on the dawn patrol,_ Quailkit noted smugly - into the clearing. Wetwhisker, a gray and silver tom, followed Finchcall into the camp, padding straight ahead to the fresh-kill pile and dropping two fat squirrels on it. Keeping a mouse for himself, the young warrior made a beeline for his den, waving his tail to Quailkit in greeting as he passed. Quailkit dipped her head quickly and stifled a purr. She liked Wetwhisker. The young tom tried to act like a full-grown warrior around his peers and superiors, but he tended to let his guard down somewhat around the kits and apprentices. Moreover, he was their kin - Splashfoot's younger brother.

The biggest cat in the Clan, Yewleaf, passed Quailkit without a glance in her direction. That was no surprise, and actually, she was glad that he hadn't noticed her. Yewleaf could be acutely creepy sometimes, and he _didn't_ seem to like kits at all.

As Yewleaf's tail vanished into the warriors' den, Quailkit sensed something behind her. It was easy to guess who it was, and the tabby kit flung herself out of the way, narrowly escaping Pebblepaw's swat. The mottled gray apprentice snorted, rolled his eyes, and flopped away to his den.

_Typical,_ Quailkit thought, rolling her eyes in turn and hissing at Pebblepaw's back. He, Petalpaw, and Ferretpaw tended to pick on the littler cats if they were bored. Asterkit wasn't very bothered by it, and Quailkit didn't mind either. To be honest, it _was_ fun to counterattack Pebblepaw. He was almost easy to take down, despite being two moons older than Quailkit and Asterkit. Asterkit had shared her thoughts with her sister one day - "He got a fair share of _brawn_," the dark ginger kit had snickered, "but not much _brains_, if you ask _me_."

Ferretpaw didn't go into the den. Instead he dropped a sparrow on the fresh-kill pile and veered away to join his mother, Sunflight, who was daintily eating a dove. The beautiful golden tabby queen paused every now and then to clean her whiskers carefully with a creamy paw, her vivid blue eyes slanted against the dawn light that spilled across her sun-colored pelt. Quailkit heard a faint murmur of welcome as Ferretpaw joined her and the two started to share tongues. Stuck-up as stupid Ferretpaw was, Quailkit knew he was capable of actually liking somebody, thanks to his mother. As she watched the two, the tabby kit wished that Splashfoot would come out and groom _her._

There was a faint sound of pawsteps, and Bramblepaw appeared just in Quailkit's line of sight. "You're still out here?" she mewed as she sat down. "You really shouldn't be, without somebody else...but don't worry, I won't tell."

"I wasn't worried," purred Quailkit, butting Bramblepaw's shoulder affectionately with her head.

Bramblepaw chuckled and licked Quailkit's ear. "Do you want to eat something?" she inquired, not making any mention of the upsetting events earlier that morning.

"Um...not really," the kit replied as she stretched and yawned. "So _did_ you pass your assessment?"

It seemed as if a shadow had settled on Bramblepaw's face. Her entire expression saddened and she slumped a bit. "I don't know," she murmured, not looking at Quailkit.

"Maybe you should go ask Snakestar," suggested Quailkit helpfully.

"I'd really rather not," mumbled Bramblepaw.

"Why?"

The tabby apprentice looked desperate. "What if I didn't pass?"

"I bet you did!" Quailkit chirped. "You're an amazing hunter and fighter, Bramblepaw, I know you are, and I don't know why Eagletalon acts why you aren't!"

"I do," spat the older she-cat, gazing moodily around the camp, her eyes narrowed. "_He_ thinks that because I used to be a house cat, I'm useless. Stupid old..." She muttered a few unflattering comments under her breath and lashed her striped tail.

"Bramblepaw!" yelped Quailkit, ears flattening. "He's our _deputy!_ You can't say bad things about him!"

"And why not?" Bramblepaw rounded on Quailkit, eyes flashing and fur bristling. Quailkit shrank back and Bramblepaw halted, the fur on her neck slowly relaxing. "Sorry, Quailkit," she apologized, bending her head to touch the tiny she-cat between the ears with her muzzle. "I'm just a bit...upset."

"I would be too." Quailkit rubbed her cheek against Bramblepaw's muzzle. "But Eagletalon is the deputy, and you need to respect him."

"My old Twolegs talked about something called 'freedom of speech'," growled Bramblepaw quietly, looking away from Quailkit again, her gaze aimlessly roaming the clearing. "Obviously none of this Clan has ever heard about it, and that's not surprising, given their attitudes towards cats like me. They're such - "

"Hey!" Quailkit was indignant. "_I'm_ part of this Clan. So's Splashfoot and Asterkit and Squirreltail and Snakestar. None of _us_ are mean to you." She wracked her brains. "Wetwhisker likes you...so does Aspenfrost...they shared prey with you a few days ago. Beetlefoot is nice to you too, and, and, and..." The small tabby groped for another name.

"That's only about half the Clan," the apprentice pointed out. She looked a bit less pessimistic, but her eyes were still troubled. "Out of the other half, some of them don't even look at me or acknowledge my existence - and the rest of them hate me. If any of them get a chance they'll sabotage my reputation, insult me, whatever, and do you know why?"

Quailkit's whiskers quivered. She _hated_ it when this subject was brought up.

"It's because I used to be a house cat." Bramblepaw's fiery amber eyes shot sparks. "It doesn't matter that I've worked extra hard here, every day of my life. Every waking moment, Quailkit, I have to do it better. I have to run faster, think faster, talk faster, hunt faster, and I can't mess up, because then I'll be in trouble. And so will Snakestar. He talked to me, you know, the day I joined - told me all that - told me about the cats like Eagletalon. Told me I'd have to be the _best_. Not just good, not above average; the _best._ Or everybody will come after me, and him too, for letting an incompetent _house cat_ into the Clan." Bramblepaw was talking fast now, and Quailkit wondered if her friend had forgotten to pause and take breaths. "I missed that mouse and gave every prejudiced cat in the Clan another reason why I shouldn't be able to become a warrior. That was stupid. _I'm_ stupid. For example, I'm ranting about my problems to a _kit_. Why? Because - I'm - stupid. I'm probably socially challenged too, come to think about it..." The tabby's eyes darted around the clearing at random. "Who knows? Maybe I _am_ incompetent. It's not like there's another house cat in the Clan to compare myself to - ha, like that would ever happen, Eagletalon let one cat's worth of dirty blood slip into this perfect Clan, Snakestar or no Snakestar, he isn't going to let it happen again..."

Green eyes wide, Quailkit stared up at Bramblepaw. _She shouldn't talk about herself like that. _"Bramblepaw - Bramblepaw, stop!"

"H-huh?" Bramblepaw paused her rant. "Wha' ?"

"Stop it!" Quailkit couldn't disguise the tremor of fear that crept into her voice. "Stop!"

The tall cat shook herself and blinked, gazing down at Quailkit with warm amber eyes. "Did I get carried away?" she asked.

Not wanting to let any more emotion escape, Quailkit nodded mutely.

"Sorry," mumbled Bramblepaw, curling her tail around her paws and sinking into a crouch. "It's just - there's not really anybody else I can talk to. I know it's weird, and you're so much younger than me, but Aspenfrost and Wetwhisker have got warrior duties, and Squirreltail isn't my friend. She's decent to me," the apprentice added quickly in response to Quailkit's look of surprise, "and she's a great mentor, but we aren't_ buddies_. Beetlefoot is okay, but I don't even know him very well. I've talked to him a grand total of...maybe five times. I never knew my real parents, and Dad lives really far away from here. You - you're the only cat I can come to."

Quailkit felt a warm feeling beginning to expand somewhere inside her. It started somewhere within her skinny white chest and radiated all the way to the tips of her ears, tail, nose, and toes, making her feel almost as if she'd been filled with liquid sunlight. "Thanks," she mewed quietly, pressing herself against Bramblepaw's reassuringly warm fur and closing her eyes.

"Let all members of ShadowClan who are able to do so gather beneath the Highbranch for a Clan meeting."

Quailkit's eyes flew open and she pulled away from Bramblepaw at the sound of the familiar gathering call. Sure enough, Snakestar was perched on the Highbranch, dark blue eyes gleaming faintly.

Ferretpaw and Sunflight were already on their way to the meeting spot, and Quailkit saw Beetlefoot emerging from his den at the edge of the camp clearing. Wetwhisker and Aspenfrost came tumbling out of the warriors' den together, followed by Yewleaf. Splashfoot, Asterkit, and Rockkit were emerging from the nursery, and Brightdawn seemed to be coming out of her den as well. Eagletalon was already sitting below the tree - from where Quailkit was, she thought he looked madder than a fox in a fit. That wasn't good, of course, but the tabby-and-white kit suppressed a gleeful squeal as she turned to Bramblepaw and mewed excitedly, "Bramblepaw, I think you're getting your warrior name!"

"Huh?" Bramblepaw blinked distractedly. "No - no, I'm not, Quailkit. It's Rockkit's apprenticeship ceremony."

Quailkit thought this over for a moment. True, Rockkit was older than six moons as of a few days ago, but judging from Eagletalon's flattened ears and lashing tail, it had to be her friend's warrior ceremony. "No, I really think you should start grooming yourself or something, Bramblepaw," she meowed nervously as she began to walk briskly towards the meeting tree.

"M'kay, fine." As Bramblepaw padded beside Quailkit, the apprentice turned her head and started to groom her own fur. The two cats sat down at the edge of the group, Bramblepaw mewing between licks, "But I still say that it's Rockkit's apprenticeship."

"Fine," smirked Quailkit.

Snakestar's gaze swept over the Clan. "I have gathered you to witness two ceremonies," he informed them. "Rockkit and Bramblepaw, step forward."

Bramblepaw emitted a little yelp of surprise, but she darted towards the base of the tree without hesitation. Rockkit walked forward much more cautiously, timing every step, gazing up at the leader with solemn golden eyes.

"Firstly, Bramblepaw has been assessed and has proven herself worthy to become a warrior." Snakestar blinked slowly and pinned Bramblepaw with his eyes. "I, Snakestar, leader of ShadowClan, call upon my warrior ancestors to look down on this apprentice. She has trained hard to understand the ways of your noble code, and I commend her to you as a warrior in her turn." His eyes narrowed ever so slightly. "Bramblepaw, do you promise to uphold the warrior code and protect and defend your Clan, even at the cost of your life?"

Quailkit, looking through the small crowd of cats at her friend, was astonished to see that Bramblepaw seemed to be almost glowing_._ Gone was the uncertain young cat who had ranted to a tiny kit not long ago. In her place stood a _warrior._

"I do," Bramblepaw mewed proudly, head held high. There were a few hisses from the assembled Clan, and though Quailkit spun around furiously to see where they'd come from, Bramblepaw ignored them, eyes glittering with certainty.

Snakestar's tail twitched. "Then by the powers of StarClan, I give you your warrior name. Bramblepaw, from this moment you will be known as Bramblethorn. StarClan honors your perseverance and your independence, and we welcome you as a full warrior of ShadowClan." He pounced fluidly from the tree and padded up to the newly named Bramblethorn, briefly resting his muzzle on her head as she licked his shoulder, then drew back.

"Bramblethorn! Bramblethorn!" yowled Splashfoot, and she was quickly joined by Brightdawn, Wetwhisker, and Squirreltail. Asterkit, Aspenfrost, and Beetlefoot joined the chorus, and a few other warriors murmured her name a few times as well.

Quailkit dashed up to her older friend and nudged her. "Bramblethorn! Bramblethorn!" she squealed, rearing up on her hind legs and playfully trying to tackle the new warrior. Bramblethorn chuckled but didn't roll away from Quailkit like she usually did. Quailkit understood, and stepped back.

"If you're quite finished," Snakestar mewed coolly from the Highbranch - how had he gotten up there so fast? - as he gazed down at the still-cheering Wetwhisker and Asterkit, "I also have an apprentice ceremony to perform."

Asterkit chuckled, embarrassed, and shut her mouth with an audible snap. Wetwhisker dipped his head and stopped yowling.

"Rockkit is six moons old, and it is time for him to become an apprentice. From this day until you receive your warrior name, you shall be known as Rockpaw." Snakestar looked up, and his gaze settled on somebody behind Quailkit. "Squirreltail, you have shown yourself to be an adequate mentor with Bramblethorn, your first apprentice. You shall mentor Rockpaw. I expect you to pass on to him the knowledge of our ways."

Squirreltail padded briskly up to her new apprentice, without a trace of surprise on her face - she'd obviously known that she'd be getting another apprentice right away. Rockpaw solemnly touched his nose to hers, then bounded away towards Pebblepaw and Ferretpaw, who were already cheering for him. The rest of the Clan followed suit.

"That'll be us in two moons," somebody purred delightedly in Quailkit's ear.

"Don't sneak up on me like that, Asterkit!" Quailkit complained, flinching away.

"You're ShadowClan," her sister pointed out, flicking her with a dark ginger paw. "Don't get snuck up on."

Quailkit rolled her eyes. "You have a point, little sister."

"Who're you calling little?" Asterkit fluffed up her fur and bounced up to Quailkit, thrusting her face in Quailkit's. Deciding not to dust wrestle, Quailkit backed away from the confrontation, instead padding over to Bramblethorn, who was chatting up a storm with Splashfoot and Aspenfrost.

"Bramblethorn?" she asked tentatively, expecting to be ignored. To her delight, Bramblethorn stopped talking and bent down.

"Yeah?"

"Do you, um, want to share some prey?"

"Hungry now, huh?" Bramblethorn's whiskers twitched. "Just a few minutes ago you weren't."

"Well...I must've digested my sparrow from last night really fast." It _was_ the only logical explanation, Quailkit thought.

Splashfoot looked down at her daughter kindly. "I noticed that Bramblethorn left us a lovely big squirrel this morning - "

"I was _awake_ when she brought it in," boasted Quailkit to Aspenfrost.

" - so maybe you could go get that and bring it here for us all to share."

"It's kinda big," Quailkit pointed out, wrinkling her nose. "Actually, it's almost as big as me."

"Perhaps Asterkit can help you carry it," Aspenfrost suggested kindly, her blue-green eyes twinkling.

The little tabby-and-white cat nodded and turned away, scanning the clearing. Almost immediately she spotted Asterkit lingering near the apprentices' den, probably watching for Ferretpaw. Her sister's obsession with the tom could be extremely creepy. Quailkit remembered a time when -

"Are you going to get me my squirrel or not?" Bramblethorn demanded playfully.

Quailkit laughed and ran towards Asterkit.


	4. Chapter 3: Otterkit of Twolegplace

**Cody is not a self-insert, nor is her family mine. However, I did steal most of the back yard from my parents' house. Sowwy.**

**A quick note on house cats: If you've read Warriors, you know that house cats don't know much more about humans than Clan cats do, only understanding a few words of English and not knowing much about anything "Twolegs" did. I found this to be highly unlikely, given the fact that most house cats have been brought up with as much - if not more - contact with humans than with others of their species. Looking to other works for an idea of what I should do, I quickly rejected Felidae's portrayal of cats as able to read, completely understand humans' behavior, and use computer programs efficiently. I found an answer in the sadly underhyped book The Tygrine Cat, in which house cats understand basic English and most of what humans do, but would not be able to use human technology or read unless their owner sat down and told their cat what to do, which is highly unlikely. I will be using The Tygrine Cat's canon in regard to house cats' relationships with their owners.**

**Warning:****This chapter is 15.5 thousand words long, and is NOT a filler. Make sure you have time to read this, and feel free to take breaks at line breaks.**

* * *

><p><span>Chapter Two :: Otterkit of Twolegplace<span>

It was a lovely, blustery, crisp spring afternoon, the perfect follow-up to an unusually sunny and warm morning. A few stray leaves fluttered and danced on the driveway. A sparrow alighted on the roof of the housefolks' suburban and lingered for a few heartbeats, tiny gray-brown feathers ruffled by the breeze, before taking off again, playfully chasing a red squirrel across the yard and up into the branches of a spreading oak that stood a few houses to the right of Otterkit's. The afternoon looked like the perfect day to be outside, chasing feathers, taking dust baths, and inevitably, hiding from Brownie and the other two kittens that lived on their block.

But Otterkit didn't think he was going to get to go outside any time soon.

Chocolate had caught him earlier in the afternoon, when he was curled up and just nearly asleep in a golden ray of sun that slanted through an upstairs window and splattered delicious warmth all over Cody's bed. She had somehow managed to creep soundlessly into the room, and had completely startled Otterkit when she'd pounced up onto the bed and flung herself at him. Now he was her prisoner for who knew how long. Luckily, she was in a benign mood today, not having any missing toys to blame him for.

"Stop shifting, Otterkit!" Chocolate complained, poking him in the side with a tiny dappled paw.

"Ow!" Otterkit yelped, and flinched away.

Chocolate rolled her eyes and sighed dramatically. "Don't worry, Otterkit, I think this is the last one."

The slim gray tomkit turned his head slightly and regarded her out of the corners of his forest-green eyes. "D'you promise?" he asked skeptically.

"If it looks good," she instantly replied, and Otterkit gritted his teeth. "Now, face forward and _don't move._"

Grumbling under his breath, Otterkit reluctantly complied, knowing that if he upset her he'd soon find himself shut in the pitch-black, stale-smelling storage closet downstairs. As his cousin's teeth and tongue scraped and lapped against his head fur, he let his gaze wander past her brown-spotted fur and out the window, where two starlings were having an animated discussion on the high wires. The discussion soon turned to a heated debate, and the debate escalated into a duel, which swiftly became an all-out aerial war. The smaller starling dipped and dodged the larger's attacks, beating its wings furiously in order to stabilize itself in the swirling air currents. The larger starling flipped and turned, ever the aggressor. Once it overshot its initial target, and the smaller starling whipped around and dove -

"There! All done!" chirped Chocolate, her plump, furry cheeks fluffing up a bit with pride. "C'mere and look at yourself!" She bounced off of the bed and took exactly two and a half steps towards the mirror on top of the dresser, then stopped in her tracks and turned. "Otterkit, get your tail over here!"

Otterkit narrowed his eyes in concentration and reached up a small paw towards his own head, patting at the fur gently, trying to figure out what Chocolate had done with it _this_ time.

"Cut it out, Otterkit, you're gonna ruin it!"

"You probably already ruined it enough," he mumbled under his breath, but he made his way over to where Cody's dresser stood, nearly touching the bed. The gray kit crouched down low, gathering himself, then pounced up onto the dresser, his claws clicking as he skidded to a stop next to Chocolate.

"How come you always do that?" she asked. "And I did _not_ ruin it."

"Do what?" Otterkit asked, looking at himself in the mirror for the first time. His fur had been spiked up into a raggedy, fairly floppy ridge that ran down the middle of his face and the back of the neck. "And yeah, you did. This is _uuu-gly._"

"Crouch down before jumping, and no, it's not," the brown-and white she-kit snapped back. "You have no taste. It's called a mohawk. _People_ like it, so you should too."

"I don't know...just 'cause it feels right. Helps me jump further." Otterkit wrinkled his nose. "And that's stupid."

Chocolate blinked. "Shut up!" she squeaked. It looked as if she was starting to lose her temper - the strangest things set her off.

"But why _should_ I like it if the people like it?" Otterkit asked challengingly.

"They're smarter than us," was his cousin's instant reply.

Otterkit smirked - this was far too good of an opportunity. "Well, most everything _is_ smarter than you..." he began, but was predictably interrupted by Chocolate's angry squeal.

"That's not true!" she snapped. "Do you want me to tell on you and get you stuck in the closet?"

"Tattletale," Otterkit retorted, bristling.

The dappled she-kit curled her lip. "I am _not!_ Mom! Mo-om! Otterkit said - " She broke off abruptly.

"Finally remember that your mom and Brownie are at the vet?" the gray tom asked cheekily.

"Oh...be quiet," she mewed, whiskers twitching slightly as she reached out and cuffed him on the head with a hefty paw, effectively damaging a good deal of her own work on his headfur as she did so. "I can still beat you in a fight."

Otterkit chuckled. "Well, _yeah._ Obviously. You're almost a moon older than me."

"But you're a really good fighter," Chocolate informed him. "Even Dad said so."

"Really?" This was news to Otterkit. Brownie almost never complimented him - not that the dark brown tom insulted him. It was more like Brownie was attempting to ignore the scrappy little add-on to his family. Otterkit sometimes suspected that Chocolate's father even tried not to _think_ about him. It was an amusing thought. "When?"

"Well, a few moons ago," Chocolate began, squinching up her face, "I was really mad at you for something...I forgot what...but me and Calvin - " Otterkit pictured the skinny but extremely fluffy young white tom, one of Chocolate's many friends, who lived at the end of the block " - were fighting with you, and you left _a mark. _Like, not a _bloody_ mark, but it was still a mark. _In my fur_!"

"I remember that," Otterkit grumbled. "You left a few marks too."

"Yes, but...well...that was two on one," his cousin mumbled, sounding a bit ashamed. "Anyways, I showed it to Mom and Dad that night at dinner - I'd locked you out that night, Otterkit, sorry - "

"Apology accepted," Otterkit mewed. It didn't really matter to him - locking him out was one of Chocolate's favorite amusements anyways, and he was rather used to it by now.

" - and Dad said that you were an _unnaturally_ good fighter," Chocolate concluded.

The silvery tom's nose wrinkled, almost certain of what the answer would be even before he asked the question. "Is that 'unnatural' as in 'amazing', or 'unnatural' as in, um, 'unnatural'?"

Chocolate chuckled and scratched her ear a bit nervously. "Well, you know Dad," she meowed lightly as she stood up and stretched. "How about that fight, then?"

"I still think you're gonna beat me...'cause you're so _fat_," Otterkit replied teasingly. Chocolate could be fun to play with, in the event that you caught her in the right mood, which was admittedly pretty rare.

"Ah, be quiet," she retorted, and pounced, knocking him off the dresser and onto the bed.

Otterkit rolled with her momentum, using one of the few tricks that he'd figured out over a lifetime of being chased and attacked - albeit teasingly at times - by slightly larger cats like Chocolate and her friends. He tried kicking Chocolate off as they rolled to a stop, but unsurprisingly, she was too heavy. She _did_ chuckle and bounce back a bit, though, which gave Otterkit just enough time to roll over and slither out from under her. He was just getting back to his feet when the laughing Chocolate slammed into him. This time, unprepared for the attack, Otterkit was squashed flat on the bed. He felt Chocolate prick him with her claws, and scrabbled harder to get away - Chocolate could be unpredictable in playfights. His larger cousin's fluffy fur half-smothered him as he fought his way out from under her. Finally Otterkit sucked in a deep breath of clear air, unobstructed by fur. He tugged the rest of himself out from under the brown-and-white she-kit and delivered as strong a kick as he could with his hind legs.

"Ooomph!" squeaked Chocolate, rolling nearly to the edge of the bed. There was a soft _thud_ as something fell off the bed, and Chocolate bounced to her feet, shaking out her tousled fur. "Now look what you did!"

"_I_ didn't do it," meowed Otterkit indignantly, struck with the unfairness of the situation. "_You're_ the one who started the playfight." But he still stood up, stretched, and padded slowly over to Chocolate, nervous about what he'd caused her to knock over. "Is it broken?"

"Nah. It's a book," Chocolate reassured him, flicking him with her short brown-and-white tail. "See?"

Otterkit peered over the edge of the bed and saw a colorful book sprawled on the floor. "Oh yeah," he mewed, recognizing it. "That's Cody's favorite book. She's talked to me about it before." He rubbed his head with a forepaw - he was still a bit dizzy from rolling all over the bed with Chocolate a few moments ago.

"Really? Books tell stories, right? What's the story of it?" Chocolate asked, eyes gleaming with interest.

"I don't know, I don't really care about that stuff," the gray kit mewed, but seeing his cousin's look of disappointment, he added, "I kind of listened, but I was pretty tired. She likes to talk about books a lot."

"Uh-huh. Why do you think she talks to you and me so much?"

"Maybe she thinks we'll talk back someday?" Otterkit guessed.

"Maybe she doesn't like talking to other people," mused Chocolate. "Matt and Kayley don't like it when she talks about books too much, and I guess Josh is a little too young to care. People take so _long_ to grow up. Mom says he already was walking and kind of talking too when they adopted her - and she's not that old, either, you know."

"Yeah, I know," Otterkit mewed tiredly, blinking slowly. Chocolate never tired of talking about her parents, how wonderful her mother was, how strong her father was, and Otterkit often wondered if his own parents had been as wonderful. Even though he'd been told that his parents had died, he'd received so little detail that he wasn't sure that that was true. The most he'd ever heard was that they'd been killed, and that had only come after what seemed like _ages_ of bothering Brownie about it. But Otterkit really had no proof that his parents hadn't just abandoned him on the doorstep of Brownie and Spots' house, and it was his personal theory. Even though it meant that they would not have wanted him, at least there was a chance that he had a beautiful, kind mother and handsome, brave father alive out there _somewhere_, waiting to be found someday when Otterkit's legs were longer and stronger. He wasn't sure how he'd find them - assuming that they weren't really dead, of course - but he was determined to do it somehow. Spots might know more about where his mother had lived, what she had been like, and maybe he could persuade her to tell him someday. He'd managed to figure out, by eavesdropping and accidentally overhearing, that Spots was the cat who was related to him by blood - she was his mother's littermate. Sometimes he'd hidden out of sight of his kin and stared at Spots' soft fur, her drab gray and brown dapples, her pale yellow eyes, for hours on end, wondering if she looked anything like her sister, trying to see something familiar in her, something that would trigger a memory of his mother.

Otterkit had only faint memories of his parents, which made sense, seeing as how he'd arrived at this house when he was barely more than a moon old, as Chocolate told him. He could grasp recollections of sun dazzling him, the feel and smell of some sort of odd, plant-like material surrounding him, and almost always, a low, loving purr, reverbrating around him. Stranger, but just as enticingly fuzzy around the edges and details, were the memories of a dark, cold place and the scent of damp, stale air. If he focused, Otterkit could reach a short, but frightening memory of yowls and screeches, the flash and glow of moonlight on something reflective - a mirror? - a stabbing pain in his cheek, and blood splattered across a shadowy hardwood floor. He'd never confronted Brownie or Spots about these memories - if there was anything they disliked more than talking about him, it was talking about his parents, who, Otterkit guessed from the few bits of conversation he'd heard about them, hadn't been the most sensible of cats. From the little he knew, he guessed that they had been ferals, cats who rejected human companionship and lived on their own. _Ferals._ The word had a forbidden yet exciting tang to it when Otterkit spoke it in his mind.

"Otterkit! Otterkit! Earth to Otterkit!" Chocolate waved a paw in front of his face.

Otterkit blinked and focused on his cousin's wide, greenish eyes. "Yeah?"

The brown-and-white she-cat shook out her fur and flicked her tail. "What's the book about?"

"Oh..." Otterkit tried to recall. He thought it might have had something to do with the name the humans called him, but he wasn't quite sure - he thought that human chatter was boring, unlike Chocolate, who ate up Cody's talk about books and friends and websites and school and the human world in general, and spouted it back to Otterkit whenever she could. "It's about a human boy...who...does things. _Fights_ things," he hurriedly amended, "and, you know, normal weird human stuff - going lots of places, meeting weird people, making friends, and stuff like that."

"That sounds like all human books," Chocolate mewed, ears drooping slightly. "Cody always says it's her favorite book when she reads it. 'I'm going to read this one again,' she tells me. 'It's my _favorite_, Chocolate.'" The kit perked up slightly. "D'you remember anything different about it?"

"There's a cat in it," Otterkit recalled. "I remember that."

"Cody reads soooo many series with cats in them." Chocolate rolled her eyes and sighed expansively, flopping onto the floor and digging her tiny white claws into the carpet. "That's nothing new, Otterkit. Can you remember anything else at all? Who's the villain?"

"The wha?" Otterkit shook his head in confusion.

"_Villain._ The bad guy."

"Nope."

"You really need to pay more attention when Cody talks about books!" Chocolate snapped, her voice escalating into a whine.

The gray kit shook out his fur. "But whyyy?" he drawled.

"Because I said so!"

"Hmm...give me a better reason, a really good reason, and I promise I'll listen when Cody tells me about her books," Otterkit challenged, eyes sparkling.

The brown-and-white cat's tail twitched. "Because knowing about these books could help you in real life," she said finally, her voice sounding a little desperate as she tapped the book with one small white paw.

"Sure...like anything that happens to that made-up person in that made-up thing is ever going to happen to me," mumbled Otterkit rebelliously, whiskers twitching.

His cousin flipped over onto her back and rolled around on the carpet for a moment before hopping up again, stretching, and shaking out her ruffled fur. She padded over to Otterkit, stood so that their noses were almost touching, and informed him, "You are impossible."

"Good to know," retorted the gray tom.

Chocolate narrowed her eyes playfully and pounced on Otterkit, bowling him past the book. Otterkit wriggled away from her and darted out of the room, slithering effortlessly through the cracked door, and stopping at the top of the stairs. Chocolate was hard on his heels, but she didn't stop at the stairs. She leaped on him again, knocking him over and accidentally rolling both of them off the top of the staircase.

Otterkit tried to avoid hitting any vital part of his body too hard as they tumbled down the carpeted stairs together. As he curled into a ball he could hear Chocolate squeaking in pain every time she hit a stair. Otterkit winced every time he felt a particularly hard impact.

Finally he slammed into a smooth, cool surface, and felt himself spinning lazily across the space of tiling in front of the door. Chocolate was already trying to pick herself up off her feet. She looked mad. The gray kit felt his heart sink, knowing that this couldn't end well.

And as luck would have it, that was the moment that Sharon - Cody's mother - pulled up in front of the house, back from the trip to the vet, with Brownie and Spots in tow.

...

Sharon had apparently let Brownie and Spots out by the front door, because Brownie came squeezing through the door on the woman's heels. Otterkit winced as he saw Brownie take in the scene. The fluffy brown tom was already beginning to inflate, rather like the colorful beach ball that Matt and Josh liked to play with. Luckily, Sharon set down the two empty cat carriers and swooped down on Chocolate and Otterkit before Brownie could do anything.

"Hewwo, Chocwit," she cooed in a baby voice as she cuddled the two kittens, tickling Chocolate's furry white belly. "And hewwo dere, Wightning. Were you two playing? Hmm?" She stroked Otterkit's head and set them both down. "Or were you waiting for me to bring Cody home so she could play with you?" Bending down, Sharon gave both of the kits a last pat before heading out the door again, locking it behind her.

A few moments later, Otterkit heard the sound of the car starting and pulling out of the driveway again. Knowing that he'd most likely be in trouble for being knocked down the stairs, he turned to face Brownie and Chocolate, tail swishing nervously.

"Well?" Brownie growled, taking a step towards Otterkit. The fluffy tom didn't look quite as menacing as usual - he seemed a bit woozy. Maybe the vet had given Brownie a shot - Otterkit remembered feeling a bit odd after he himself got shots. "What happened - " the brown cat gestured with his tail to the stairs and entryway " - here?"

Chocolate's claws scrabbled against the floor as she hurried forward to stand next to her father. She didn't look quite as angry as she had directly following her and Otterkit's tumble down the stairs, but she still appeared to be quite a bit irritated. "Otterkit and I were fighting, and we fell downstairs," she told Brownie.

"Hmm." Brownie narrowed his eyes and stared at Otterkit. "I'll deal with this...later..." His jaws stretched in an enormous yawn, and he turned away, padding slowly into the living room and pouncing up on the couch. His yellow eyes drifted shut and his tail, which had been lazily flopping from side to side on the dull purple cushions, slowed its movement and eventually became still.

"I guess you'll be shut in the storage closet later," Chocolate informed Otterkit carelessly as she drifted away.

Otterkit knew she was probably right, but he pretended that he didn't know. "Whatever," he mumbled, following her - it wasn't as if he had anything else to do. "We'll see about that."

The chubby brown-and-white cat snorted, but didn't snap at him to stop following her. She really _was_ in a good mood that day, Otterkit reflected, as they made their way through the family room and kitchen to the breakfast room, where the cat flap hung enticingly. Scents from outside lingered around its edges - the perfume of flowers, the scent of birds and rabbits and squirrels, the delicious smell of new dirt, the wild enticing tang of sprouting grass, the free breath of spring breezes.

Otterkit shoved past his cousin, earning an indignant "Hey!" and a slap from her, but he didn't care. He'd already thrust his nose through the flap, and a single shove with his hind legs took him the rest of the way through, onto the covered porch. A bit more meticulously, Chocolate followed him, stretching up onto her tiptoes and just managing to come through one leg at a time like her parents did, though her belly scraped against the door.

"So where we going?" Otterkit asked.

"I don't care where _you_ go," Chocolate informed him coolly, "but _I_'m going to go talk to Mother."

"Okay then, I'll come with you." The gray kit shot a glance at Chocolate out of the corner of his eyes and smirked when he saw an infuriated look flicker across her face. It was fun to bait Chocolate - at least it was when she wasn't coming after Otterkit with her claws extended.

The bi-colored kit made her way across the slippery porch floor. Waggling her haunches, she bounced up onto the narrow ledge around the screened porch windows and slipped out of a rip in the screen that Spots had made for the purpose of getting out. Otterkit could've just slipped through the similar rip in the screen door - it would have been easier - but he'd decided that if he was to be punished later anyways, he might as well annoy Chocolate as much as possible. He sank into his favorite crouch and sprang up onto the ledge right behind his cousin, claws gripping the wood securely. The young tom shoved through the screen, relishing the tickling scratchy feeling as the torn edges scraped along his fur, and joined Chocolate on the edge of the brick planter that stood right against the covered porch.

Chocolate was gauging her leap to the ground, so Otterkit turned and sniffed at the young plants in the big planter. From the pale yellow buds on them, he guessed that they were some sort of flower. Their tangy scent tickled his nose and made him want to sneeze, though he couldn't quite get the sneeze out. He hated it when that happened.

Behind him, there was a thud and a quiet crunching noise as Chocolate landed in the vibrantly green spring grass. Otterkit looked away from the baby flowers, rubbing his nose with a forepaw. Chocolate was staring up at him from the ground.

"You coming or not?" she grumped.

Otterkit felt a warmth creeping out of somewhere in his chest. It wasn't often that Chocolate was this nice. "Yeah," he meowed, and hurried off the edge of the planter, forgetting to stop and calculate a good jump. The silvery kit winced as one of his forepaws hit the ground awkwardly, but seeing that Chocolate was already on her way around the house, he ignored the throbbing ache and chased after her, relishing the companionship that his cousin rarely offered.

Cody's family's house was a big one. It had two floors and a basement, and the back yard, though not huge, was nicely sized. A trampoline occupied the mid-left part of the yard - the kits had learned to avoid it when the younger housefolk were playing, as they might find themselves scooped up and put on the trampoline. When no children were outside, though, Otterkit liked to bask in the sun on the strange black material that the trampoline was made of, though if his aunt Spots decided she wanted to bask, Otterkit would have to move it - and fast. Brownie and Chocolate both preferred the strange half-shade that the oddly transparent trampoline provided.

In the middle of the back yard stood a spreading tree. Otterkit didn't know what kind of tree it was - its leaves were big and waxy on one side, and it blossomed with huge white flowers that sometimes fell to earth when the wind was strong enough. A swing hung from one of its branches, and Cody and her siblings loved to climb it.

The entire right half of the back house wall looking into the back yard, just past the back double door that was directly to the right of the rightmost planter, was lined with massive bushes. Otterkit had fond memories of clambering up in the bushes' branches and perching there for hours on end while Chocolate and her friends searched for him in vain. When Chocolate's friends weren't there and she was in a good mood, he and she had played tag under those bushes.

Young trees - three of them - stood just several tail-lengths from the right fence. They were just starting to bloom into unbelievably thin, delicate, tiny pink blossoms that had no scent. Their smooth tan-and-white trunks were only a bit bigger around than Brownie's thick leg.

In both corners of the yard stood small trees that hung down over their respective corners, dappling the grass liberally with shadows cast by their dark leaves. Chocolate had told Otterkit once, months ago, that the trees would burst into magnificent, delicious-smelling blossoms, huge and thick and lavender and purple and white, and once mid-spring came, the trees had not disappointed. Now their strong-scented flowers perfumed the air with a thick, wonderful, almost intoxicating odor.

The back yard wrapped around the side of the house on the left (if you were looking out the back door). A square section of some sort of small, leafy plant cut off Otterkit's owners' gardening area from the main yard. Cody's father, Mark, had been clearing out a space right next to the covered porch, and that space was now utterly small-plantless, covered with pinkish gravel and flat square stones. Spots _loved_ the new gravelly area; almost every time she couldn't be found inside, she was basking in the sun there - not that Otterkit ever had a strong desire to go looking for Spots. He had a sneaky feeling that she actually liked him a bit more than she let on, perhaps even would have been able to tolerate him had she tried, but his aunt didn't try. So Otterkit stayed well away when possible.

And now, sure enough, as Chocolate and Otterkit rounded the corner of the left brick planter - just to the left of the screen door, which was just to the left of the hose, which was just to the left of the right planter - Spots was stretched out on the gravel, her fluffy white stomach soaking up sun rays while her dappled back pressed against the gravel.

"Hi, Mom!" chirped Chocolate, bounding over to her mother. When Otterkit didn't follow suit, his temperamental cousin glared and flicked her tail sharply. Otterkit rolled his eyes and began padding slowly towards Spots and her daughter.

"Hello there, Chocolate," purred Spots, touching her pink nose gently to Chocolate's brown-spotted head.

Chocolate nudged her mother affectionately. "How was the vet? Did you get a shot?"

"I'm afraid so," Spots told her daughter, whiskers twitching slightly. "It wasn't so bad, though - once you get to be as old as me, you're used to it."

"Aw, you're not _that_ old!" Chocolate protested. "You're really young! You're just a, a year and three-quarters, right? That's really young, right?"

"Suppose so," meowed the dappled gray-and-brown queen lazily. Then she caught sight of Otterkit, lingering nervously behind Chocolate. Her eyes automatically narrowed slightly - well, Otterkit had expected _that._ "What are you doing here?" she asked, her tone also several shades icier.

"Otter and me are hanging out together today, 'cause none of my friends are over," Chocolate explained sunnily. Otterkit was again awed at her daily changing moods - one day she shone, the next she stormed, like a land with particularly unpredictable weather.

Spots arched one eyebrow. "Is that so, Otterkit?" Her voice was even chillier now as she turned her narrowed yellow gaze on him, and Otterkit braced for the coming tongue-lashing.

But Otterkit was destined never to hear that tongue-lashing, nor any other one.

As Spots' mouth began to open, it froze just as it was. The dappled queen's tail, which had been flicking idly, had also frozen in mid-twitch, and Spots' gaze, which had flicked to the side for just a moment, was riveted on something in the front yard.

Otterkit looked.

A strange cat was making its way slowly towards the open back gate that led into the housefolks' garden area.

Otterkit couldn't tell what exactly the stranger looked like - he could see that the cat was a smudgy brown with cream splatters, but that was about it - no eye color, no gender, nothing else. As he stared at the cat that had evoked such an interesting stare from Spots, he saw something else, something small, moving behind the strange adult cat (who, Otterkit slowly realized, was a rather large cat). In a few moments of staring, Otterkit decided that it was a kit, even if it _did_ look remarkably like a rather scruffy rat from where he sat.

The two cats reached the garden gate, neither one hurrying.

"Mama..." Chocolate began in a quavering voice, "do you...do you know..."

Spots had gotten silently to her feet. Now she spun and raced into the house in a flash of white, tan-brown, and mousy gray, her pale eyes wide and frightened.

The two cats continued to walk towards Otterkit and Chocolate, not going any faster, not going any slower.

"O-otterkit, what if they're...what if they're _ferals_?" Chocolate whispered, and pressed herself to him.

Otterkit blinked and reflexively shoved his cousin off of himself. "I don't know," he hissed in reply. "I guess we run...I..."

The cats were much nearer to Otterkit and Chocolate now, perhaps ten or fifteen tail-lengths away.

Chocolate shivered and her fur fluffed up. "Otterkit...I'm scared," she admitted very quietly.

"Don't be," Otterkit instantly meowed without thinking his response through all the way before saying it.

The cats were only a few tail-lengths away from the two kits when Spots came dashing back to them, a furiously bristling Brownie by her side. He still looked a bit rumpled from his nap on the couch, but his eyes were almost shooting sparks at the strangers as he bared his teeth and arched his back. "What are you doing here?" he snarled.

The scruffy rat-kit (Otterkit couldn't help but identify her as this in his mind by now) took several hasty steps back, then ducked behind the gigantic fluffy cream-and-brown tom. She peered out from where she was hidden behind the safety of his tail, dark amber eyes gleaming in curiosity.

There was an awkward silence for several heartbeats, then the big brown tom coughed quietly and then mewed in a booming voice, "Hello, all!"

Spots hissed and drew back, while Brownie growled and bristled. Chocolate fled a few paces back to her parents, pressing against Spots' dappled side, yellowy-green eyes wide in anxiety and fear.

"Sorry to frighten you good cats," the long-furred tom said genially, raising a large paw to smooth his whiskers. "I'd have called out, told you I was coming, but I did assume you'd be expecting me..." He looked at Otterkit, almost as if he was expecting the young tom to say something like 'Yes! I've been eagerly awaiting this moment all my life!'

Otterkit just tilted his head and stared blankly back at the stranger.

"Well, hello there, Otterkit," the splotchy tom greeted him. Otterkit flinched, wondering how the huge cat knew his name, and threw a nervous glance back at his relatives. They hadn't moved from their cluster a couple of tail-lengths behind him. Their teeth were bared and their fur standing up, but their eyes were full of fear and apprehension. "I suppose you don't know me...well, they've probably told you, y'know..." He gestured with his tail.

The gray kit _didn't_ know, but he made a noncommittal noise in his throat...just to be on the safe side.

"Ah, yes, well, you'll know all about why I'm here then...been on your toes with anticipation ever since the full moon, I shouldn't wonder!"

Otterkit didn't mask his perplexed look this time, narrowing his eyes in confusion, staring curiously at the odd cat.

"You...you know of me, of course," the big cream-and-brown cat mewed, suddenly sounding rather unsure. "Molewhisker?"

Slowly, Otterkit shook his head, some part of his brain wondering why this cat had such an unusual name..._like my name,_ he realized, and blinked in surprise at the thought.

"But the Clans - you do know about them, then," said the cat.

Yet again, Otterkit shook his head, not sure what this..._Molewhisker_ was going on about. "I...don't think so..." he replied nervously.

Molewhisker shook his head, looking bemused and quite out-of-place in the humans' quite tidy yard. "Oh, dear, how do I explain this?" he mumbled to himself, shooting what looked like something quite close to a glare at Spots and Brownie as he scratched his furry head with a massive cream forepaw. "You've never heard...you...you don't know anything? At all?"

"...Well, I _do_ know things," Otterkit mewed, a bit confused. "I can jump, and hide, and stalk, and I sort of know how to fight, but not really..."

"No, no, not like that," Molewhisker mewed, shaking his head as he spoke. The scruffy kit behind him was still appraising Otterkit, her sharp amber gaze seeming to take in every detail of his appearance. Otterkit noticed that she had a collar, and felt a bit self-conscious, even though he knew Chocolate didn't have a collar either - and neither did Molewhisker, apparently. "About - about your parents, your Clan - "

"My what?" Otterkit interrupted tentatively.

Molewhisker's head turned slowly towards him, and Otterkit wondered for a moment if he'd said something he oughtn't have. But the big cat only stared incredulously at him for a very long moment. "You mean...you don't even know?"

"Know what?" The young tom almost began hopping from paw to paw in anticipation. "What do you mean?"

The cream-and-brown tom just looked at him for a long, long time. Then, just as Otterkit began to feel acutely uncomfortable, the big stranger mewed slowly, "You're a warrior, Otterkit."

"I'm a..._what?_" Otterkit was sure that he had only ever heard the word 'warrior' in peoples' stories before...but then suddenly, even as he thought that, all of his early memories of the time at this house came tumbling back to him, and he recalled hearing that word, whispered in dark hallways after he was supposed to be asleep, murmured in quiet conversations between Spots and her mate while Chocolate rubbed Otterkit's face in the carpet and batted at his tail. The gray kit wanted to turn and ask Brownie and Spots what this Molewhisker cat was talking about, but Molewhisker was already explaining himself.

"You're a warrior, a warrior of ThunderClan," Molewhisker mewed, still looking a bit confused, a bit shellshocked, as if he was completely baffled by the fact that Otterkit didn't understand a word he was saying. "Y'know, _ThunderClan?_" When Otterkit still didn't respond with any sort of visible recognition, Molewhisker's fur fluffed up a bit. He turned and raised his furry eyebrows at Spots and Brownie, giving them a hard stare for a few moments. Then he turned back to Otterkit, sinking into a crouch so that he no longer towered over him. "Otterkit...ThunderClan is a group of cats who live in a forest about, oh, half a day's journey from here...we hunt for a living, we fight foxes and badgers, we take care of each other. We...we're like a family, I suppose, a big family. We have a leader, and his second in command is called the deputy, and a medicine cat takes care of the sick..." The big cat's voice trailed off.

"Do they all have weird names like you?" Chocolate piped up boldly, earning herself a gruff look from her father and a nervous glance and half-hearted cuff on the ears from Spots.

Molewhisker _humph_ed and then chuckled. "I suppose so, youngster, if you think _my_ name is strange. Anyways, Otterkit - " he began again.

"Were my parents a part of the...of the ThunderClan?" interrupted Otterkit, hardly daring to believe that he might be uncovering some of the mystery at last. Brownie hissed softly and Spots made a quiet noise in the back of her throat, but neither said a word.

The big cat blinked. "That's just _ThunderClan,_ Otterkit. And yes, your parents were ThunderClan cats. Why else would I be coming here to get you? How else would I know your name?"

"Wh-what were their names?" Otterkit meowed, astonished at both his quivering voice and his bravery. The little she-cat behind Molewhisker was still giving him curious looks.

"Your parents?" Molewhisker queried, and when Otterkit nodded tentatively, he said, "Your mother was called Heartleap. Your father was named Otterstrike."

_Heartleap and Otterstrike. _Otterkit felt a tingle begin at the tip of his tail. It slowly rushed through him, warming and tickling and piercing him under his skin in a way he'd never felt before - it was almost like when his leg fell asleep, but more intense, more warm, more deep, more _special. _Otterkit shivered slightly, and the fur on the back of his neck rose. _Heartleap and Otterstrike._ "He...he had the same name as me," the kit could only mew, staring up into Molewhisker's big, kind face with wide eyes.

"So he did," Molewhisker agreed quietly. "Had an almost identical pelt to yours, too. But it's haunting...how much you remind me of..." His eyebrows rose significantly again, and he glanced at Spots for a heartbeat before mewing, "Heartleap."

"R-really?" Otterkit found himself stumbling over words again. "How?"

"Everything," the warrior said solemnly. "Your ears, your build, your eyes, your nose, your head, the way you move...even down to your, may I say, slightly scraggly fur. It's almost as if you _are_ Heartleap with Otterstrike's pelt. I knew you the minute I saw you coming around the side of the house, just by that. It gave me quite a shock, too, I must say. It's quite...haunting."

Brownie was still glaring, and Spots had gathered Chocolate to her with her tail, but Otterkit didn't really care. Ignoring the odd thick feeling that seemed to be collecting in the back of his throat, he asked softly the one question that he wanted most to know the answer to. "Where did they go?"

The much bigger cat stared back at him almost bleakly. "To StarClan." The answer was almost inaudible, and just as confusing as almost everything else Molewhisker had been saying.

"Is - is that like ThunderClan?" Otterkit carefully avoided saying _the ThunderClan_ this time. "Is it another Clan...in the forest?"

"No. No, those would be WindClan, RiverClan, and ShadowClan." Otterkit hurriedly took that in - _WindClan, RiverClan, ShadowClan_ - as Molewhisker continued heavily. "StarClan are our warrior ancestors, the great Clan, represented by Silverpelt and the stars in the night sky." Noticing that Otterkit still looked lost, he said more quietly, "The cats who have passed on from this life go on to StarClan, the next life."

"Oh," Otterkit said, feeling very small and very alone. His voice sounded like it was almost echoing around him. "So...so, they're dead." It was a statement, not a question, and as Otterkit blinked hard and looked down at his darker gray paws, he knew that he had known it ever since he'd found his memories, and had just been denying it. What else could the yowls and cries and splash of blood, seen faintly but held securely in his memory, have meant besides death? "H-how did they die?" he managed to ask.

The fur around Molewhisker's neck stood up visibly. "That's not to discuss here," the older cat said, and it seemed to Otterkit as if his voice held a hint of fear in it. "We can talk later. For _now_ -" Molewhisker's eyes flashed, and he turned on Brownie and Spots. "I was expecting him to be ready," he growled. He sounded a more disappointed, as opposed to upset or angry, but his voice still carried like the roll of thunder from a storm riding the horizon, foreboding and dangerous. "I was expecting him to know who he was. Where he belonged. His legacy."

"I... _I_ have a _legacy_?" Otterkit croaked in disbelief.

Molewhisker's whiskers twitched visibly. "Every cat has a legacy in some way, Otterkit," he purred, flicking the kit with his long, fluffy tail. "So yes, you do. Though perhaps," he mused, shifting his gaze to look somewhere in the distance, "perhaps it isn't so much legacy as it is legend...or is it? Oh dear - " the big brown-and-cream tom shook himself and focused on Otterkit " - I'm getting confused. And perhaps worse, I'm getting off track. Now where were we...?"

The gray tabby kit couldn't help but let go a tentative chuckle. He'd decided that he liked this easygoing cat. "You...were saying that you thought I would know about the Clan stuff," he volunteered quietly, glancing apprehensively at the three other housecats, who were just a few paces away from him.

"Yes, indeed I was," Molewhisker growled. "The understanding was that they - " he gestured with his tail to Spots and Brownie " - were to have told you about the forest cats. Obviously they haven't - that's not going to make anyone's life any easier," he informed the two other adult cats, then turned back to Otterkit.

"What's a Clan like?" The quiet, nervous, but sure voice was coming from_ Chocolate._

_"_Oh, well, now _that's _quite complicated..." Molewhisker mewed, scratching his ear. "It would take quite a while to explain, and I need to take Otterkit and Grace - " The big cat broke off suddenly, his eyes gleaming. He blinked slowly and regarded Chocolate for a long moment; then he asked suddenly, "Chocolate, would you be at all interested in joining our Clan?"

Chocolate's greenish eyes lit up instantly, glowing with what seemed to be an equal mixture of fear, doubt, and excitement. "I - I - " she stuttered, glancing at her parents as if waiting for them to complete her sentence.

It was then that Spots finally spoke. "No, she would not be interested." Her voice was tight and nervous, yet firm. The young queen's dappled tail curled around her fluffy kit tightly, as if holding Chocolate to herself.

Molewhisker's furry eyebrows rose slightly. "May I ask why?" he mewed politely.

"Yes, you may," Spots meowed tartly, yellow eyes glinting and an unidentifiable tone in her voice. "I'm not sending my kit out into the forest to live with you - you ShadowClan savages - I won't have it, I tell you, and if by any chance anyone thought that I would let my only kit go away from me because _I_ once _seemed_ to have an intere - " Spots broke off abruptly, taking a deep breath before snarling, "The answer is _no_," in a voice that invited no arguement.

Chocolate blinked up at her mother, her wide eyes holding a look of gratitude and relief mixed with something that Otterkit couldn't quite place - he wondered if it was _fear_, but wasn't quite sure.

"Erm..." Molewhisker looked and sounded hopelessly confused. "...ShadowClan?"

"Yes, of course!" snapped Spots in annoyance, the fur rising along her spine and her tail swishing furiously.

The cream-and-brown tom stared at her. "I'm afraid I don't quite understand what you mean. I belong to ThunderClan."

"...Oh." Spots looked surprised for a moment, but quickly narrowed her eyes and mewed, "Is that so?"

"Yes," Molewhisker responded slowly.

"Hmm." Otterkit could almost hear Spots' brain working. He'd lived with her long enough to know when she was confused, and he could tell that she was now. For a while there was silence, broken only by the occasional twitter of birds and the whisper of breezes in the leaves of trees. Finally Spots shook herself and meowed, "Alright then. _But_," she was quick to add, "just because your Clan's _name_ is different, doesn't mean my mind is changed."

"You _will_ let me take Otterkit, though?" Molewhisker looked nervous for a moment, whiskers quivering.

"Hm?" Spots glanced down at Otterkit. "Him? Oh, well, yes, of course, take him." She reached out and nudged Otterkit towards Molewhisker with a slightly trembling paw. "There, go on, Otterkit," she said briskly.

Otterkit slowly took a few steps forward until he reached Molewhisker's side, then turned around, opening his jaws to ask Spots what she knew about Clans and Otterkit and Otterkit's family, but when he turned, Spots was hurrying away, Chocolate's scruff gripped securely in her jaws. Brownie was right beside her. Just before they all vanished into the covered porch, Chocolate twisted in Spots' grip and waved a paw to Otterkit. Otterkit slowly raised his own paw in an unsure farewell, wondering if he would ever see Chocolate again.

"Well then, that's that sorted out," Molewhisker grunted, stretching, his claws rasping against the gravel, then yawned and stood up to his full height so he towered over Otterkit and the scruffy she-kit who Otterkit had thought looked a bit like a rat from a good distance away. "Shall we go, then?"

"But..." Otterkit said quietly, shooting a quick glance at Molewhisker. "I - I don't know..." He trailed off into silence.

"What was that?" the big tom asked, leaning down so his head was level with Otterkit's.

"N-nothing," the gray kit hurriedly said.

"Are you sure?"

Otterkit felt a twisting sensation in his stomach. _What about Cody? And Matt and Kayley and Josh? And Mark and Sharon? What about Chocolate? She's usually horrible to me, but today she was nice, even if she did mess up my fur... _Otterkit touched a paw gingerly to his head fur and felt that it had returned to its original state. Good. _Spots and Brownie, when they're ignoring me, aren't that bad. And my owners. They'll be so sad if I leave them. What if...what if they think I died? What if - _Otterkit's eyes widened - _what if I _do_ die? Are there big, fierce animals in the forest? Do they hunt cats?_

"I think he's nervous about leaving." The scruffy kit had finally spoken, or rather whispered. Otterkit noticed that she wasn't very good at whispering. She darted a glance at him and quickly looked away.

"Is he? I mean - sorry - are you, Otterkit?" Molewhisker's dark amber eyes were softer, sympathetic.

Otterkit shuffled his dark gray paws and stared at the ground. "I - " he started, then swallowed.

There was something about Molewhisker that he trusted, something that felt real, something that assured him that what Molewhisker said was true. He belonged in a Clan, where his parents - his parents! - had lived. _But..._ Otterkit felt a yearning in his heart. _I belong here, too. With Cody and the others. But if I belong in a Clan too..._

The silvery tabby took a deep breath. "Sort of," he meowed, his voice sounding unbelievably more assured than he felt. "But I'll be okay - let's...let's just go." Otterkit shut his eyes for a moment, then opened them and took a quavering step towards the gate.

...

"Are both of you doing okay back there?" Molewhisker called as they padded up a gently sloping hill, paws scraping against the warm asphalt. "Either of you need to be carried for a bit? There's no shame in that."

"I'm fine," the other kit - who Otterkit had learned was named Grace - immediately replied.

"Me too," Otterkit responded through clenched teeth. He'd never walked this far before, and the asphalt was starting to irritate his soft paw pads, but if Grace didn't need to be carried, he didn't either.

The three cats had been walking since mid-afternoon, and now the lowest edge of the reddening sun was just about to dip below the horizon. The farthest edges of the sky were a deep lavender purple, and all around the sun was streaked brilliantly with gold and red and pink and silvery white clouds.

"Well, that's good," Molewhisker meowed, but he sounded suspicious. When the big tom's head turned to look at both of them, Otterkit's head shot up and his eyes opened all the way. He forced himself to take a few big, bouncy steps until Molewhisker turned around, then went back to dragging his heavy paws.

"We won't make the camp or even the territory by nightfall," the warrior continued heavily, "but that's my fault. Don't worry - I know a place we can sleep. We'll be there in no time."

Otterkit sighed quietly in relief. Molewhisker either didn't notice or pretended not to, but Grace glanced at him out of the corners of her gleaming amber eyes. "Are you tired?" she asked, not bothering to whisper or even lower her voice.

One of Molewhisker's brown ears twitched, indicating that he'd heard. Otterkit winced. "No," he hissed to Grace, and walked a bit faster, lifting up his head.

"Are you _sure_ you don't want me to carry you, Otterkit?" Molewhisker asked, not turning his head or slowing his pace. "This black stuff is hard on the paws."

The little gray kit stifled a quiet chuckle. "Um, it's ca - "

"It's called asphalt, did you know that?" Grace mewed before Otterkit could complete his sentence. "Humans - I mean Twolegs - pour it on the road so that the cars - I suppose I'd better call them monsters now, though - so that the monsters can drive on it."

"Is that so?" Molewhisker purred. "You learn something new every day, talking to former house cats. Last time I was talking to a non-Clanborn cat... she was a senior apprentice from another Clan, I met her at the Gathering, nice young cat she was... she was telling me about Twolegs riding horses. I've never seen that - have either of you? And Otterkit, you still don't want to rest your paws for a while?"

"I've never seen it," Grace replied instantly. "I _have_ seen pictures of it, though - a picture is like freezing a moment in time on a little piece of material like a leaf, I suppose."

"I haven't seen people - um, Twolegs - riding horses before either," Otterkit said hesitantly. "And..." He lifted one of his paws and stared ruefully at the scuffed, irritated dark gray skin on the pad. "I...I guess you can carry me. If you don't mind."

It seemed as if Molewhisker had turned around, bounded a few paces back, and picked Otterkit up before the sentence was even out of the silvery tabby kit's mouth. "No problem," the big cat said out of the side of his mouth as he lifted Otterkit easily in his jaws and continued walking.

For a while the three cats continued in silence. Every once in a while, Molewhisker would turn his head to check up on Grace and would grunt in satisfaction to see that she was keeping up. Each time he did so, Otterkit felt a twinge of annoyance at that scruffy she-cat. How could she be so _perfect?_ She displayed all the symptoms of an obnoxious know-it-all and seemed to know absolutely everything about this strange new world that they were heading to. Otterkit couldn't keep a quiet growl of exasperation from rising in his throat. He felt Molewhisker twitch slightly, but the warrior didn't comment, continuing on in his same steady pace.

When the sun was nearly all the way hidden behind the line of forested hills that had been slowly drawing nearer ever since they'd set out from Otterkit's home - his _old_ home, he remind himself, feeling a mixture of excitement and sorrow twining together somewhere in his chest - they turned away from the road, crossed a sidewalk, and plunged into a place that was unlike anything Otterkit had ever seen in his short life.

Trees rose all around them - mostly slender white birches and gray-barked beeches, with the occasional pine or fir rising from the floor, which was carpeted with golden-green moss and lacy ferns. A chorus of birds were singing loudly, heralding the rise of the slender waxing crescent moon, silver-white against the dusk-blue and deep purple of the sky, and the departure of the sun, going out in a burst of golden and red flame, lavender and gray clouds flying like smoke before it.

Molewhisker bent down and let go of Otterkit's scruff. Otterkit blinked up at the big warrior. "Thanks," he said quietly.

"Don't mention it," purred Molewhisker, quickly swiping his tongue over Otterkit's head.

"Molewhisker?" The she-kit's pervasive, loudly inquiring voice cut into Otterkit's ears like thorns. "Where are we going to sleep?"

"Follow me," grunted Molewhisker, flicking his tail as he set off. "Try to stay close by - may be owls around here, they might try to make a meal of you if they're hungry enough."

Otterkit followed as quickly as he could, trying to inspect his surroundings more closely at the same time. It was hard work - oh, not keeping up with Molewhisker, who was walking slowly, but it was hard not to be distracted by the cool damp moss, the ferns that brushed his pelt elusively, the white moths that danced in the dusk, the flash of birds' wings as they flew home to their nests. This place - the forest - it was so big and so new and so beautiful, and Otterkit wanted to just stand there, staring up at the rising moon and absorbing the sounds and sights and smells and feelings, but he could not.

"Otterkit!" Grace called. Otterkit blinked. She was several cat-lengths ahead of him, and Molewhisker was quite a few paces in front of her. "Otterkit, do you know what could happen to you if you got too far away from Molewhisker?"

Tail twitching mutinously, the dark gray kit muttered, "Nope."

"Well, there are probably foxes out here - and they're most likely hungry," the scruffy tabby informed him, staring at him with big, serious amber-brown eyes. "They probably have cubs and thus need extra food, so even if Molewhisker's within hearing distance, they may decide to pick you off anyways. The same goes for the badgers, and though we're too big for most owls to pick off, you never know." She flicked an ear at him. "That's not to mention weasels, though according to Olivefall they don't tend to be much of a problem - "

"Who's Olivefall?" Otterkit interrupted, hating himself for having to ask that question - and sure enough, Grace's eyes widened perceptibly.

"You don't know who _Olivefall_ is?" she exclaimed. "But she's the deputy of all of ThunderClan!"

The tom's brow wrinkled in confusion. "What's a deputy?"

Grace took a deep breath, eyes sparkling, looking pleased to be able to correct his lack of knowledge. "The Clan deputy is the - "

"Are you kits coming?" The yowl echoed slightly. "I've found a spot to nest in. You two can get to know each other better there."

_A spot to nest in?_ Otterkit was glad that at least they'd have somewhere to sleep, though if it rained there probably wouldn't be much protection. "Come on, Grace, I'll race you!" he called, sprinting forward towards the sound of Molewhisker's voice.

When he'd gone only a few paces, Otterkit took a flying step and found that his paw had landed in thin air. Unable to stop, Otterkit tumbled down a rather steep rise and slammed into something large and extremely furry. _A fox?_ He instantly lashed out with all claws extended, panicking immediately.

"Whoa there, Otterkit, put your claws away!" He felt a large paw cuff him gently on the head.

"He _clawed_ you?"

Otterkit drew away from the furry body and looked up. Everything was a little harder to see - the sun seemed to have fully set, and the sky was dark blue and purple all over - but it was easy to see who he'd run into, not that Otterkit hadn't already guessed from the voice. "Sorry, Molewhisker," he meowed sheepishly, backing away from the big cat.

"You shouldn't go running around in the forest," Grace was saying as she picked her way down the slope. "You never know what you could run into."

"Oh, go boil your ears," Otterkit mumbled under his breath.

Molewhisker chuckled - apparently he'd overheard. "You two will learn to get along eventually," he said quietly to Otterkit. "Now, both of you, come here," he mewed, raising his voice a bit. "There's a hollow fallen tree right over there, and it's padded nicely with moss. You can settle down in there while I go get something for us to eat."

"Where will you get it?" asked Otterkit, confused. "There's no houses around here as far as I can tell."

The brown-and-cream cat's brow furrowed. "Houses?"

"He means Twoleg nests - " Grace was quick to jump in " - and Otterkit, warriors don't eat Twoleg food. The warrior code - which we base our lives around - says that the warrior rejects the soft life of a house cat. We hunt for food."

"Oh." This was new to Otterkit. "Like, you...kill things...and then...you _eat_ them? Like, um, lions?"

"He means like LionClan," Grace immediately translated to Molewhisker. "And yes, that's what Clan cats do! ThunderClan eat mainly mice, voles, squirrels, and pigeons - RiverClan of course are famous for eating and smelling like fish, but they do eat voles too - now, WindClan - "

Not really listening, Otterkit wandered away from Grace towards the fallen tree that Molewhisker had told them about. Sure enough, he found an opening in it and clambered in. Inside the tree was fairly roomy, tall enough for Otterkit to stretch to his full height in, and wide enough for Otterkit to sprawl lengthwise and have his feet barely touch either side. It wasn't too damp or smelly, and the inside was covered with soft moss. Otterkit immediately curled up snugly in a mossy space, but he didn't shut his eyes - he was too hungry, too curious, and too excited for that.

A few moments later, there was a scrabble of claws near the hole in the tree trunk, and an already familiar scent - Grace's - drifted into Otterkit's awareness.

The little gray kit didn't like Grace particularly well, but he had to admit that she seemed to know more about this whole _warriors_ thing than he did, so he asked quietly, "Do you know anything about the - um - the Clans?"

"Oh, yes!" chirped Grace. "So, ThunderClan - the Clan we're going to - they live in a deciduous forest, as far as I can tell from what Molewhisker and Olivefall told me - "

"What's _deciduous_?" Otterkit interrupted, wrinkling his nose.

Grace's hardly-disguised sigh of frustration made him dig his claws into the soft moss. "Deciduous means that the trees in that forest have leaves that fall in winter. Anyways, ThunderClan's camp is in what sounds like an abandoned quarry; in case you didn't know - " Otterkit winced " - that's basically a cut in the ground where humans...I mean, Twolegs...take stone from to use in buildings. All of the cats live in caves and under bushes down in the quarry. Then there's WindClan, who live on the moors. RiverClan live in a forest too, but their territory has a lot of marshes on it, and also a river. According to Olivefall, their camp's on an island. Finally there's ShadowClan, who live in an evergreen forest - that means pines and firs and the like."

"Oh." Otterkit tried to process all of this information as fast as possible, but it was hard work. "So...why are there more than one group of cats?"

"Is Grace telling you all about the Clans?" Molewhisker's scent flooded the hollow tree trunk, mixed with another, unfamiliar smell. "She's got plenty to say, I'm sure; when Olivefall and I first spoke to her, she couldn't stop asking question after question about life in the Clans. Kept Olivefall quite busy for quite a long time!" Otterkit couldn't see the tom in the shadows of the tree, but he could almost hear the big cat's whiskers twitching. "I'll have to interrupt your imparting of knowledge, though, Grace - are either of you hungry for wood pigeon?"

"Sure!" Grace said immediately, but Otterkit thought he heard a slight undercurrent of uncertainty in her tone this time.

"Otterkit, how about you?"

"Um...I've never eaten another animal before..." Otterkit said uncertainly, thinking of the starlings he'd watched earlier. He liked to look at birds and squirrels playing with each other, living their own wild lives; he wasn't sure how he'd deal with eating one. "But - well - do Clan cats eat...that stuff...?"

Molewhisker's deep chuckle reverbrated in the hollow space. "Yes, we do," he said kindly. "Trust me, you'll get used to it after a while. Come right on over here, both of you. I'll pick the feathers off if you'd like."

"Okay," Otterkit mewed just as Grace mewed, "No thanks."

"Well then, I'll pick the feathers off for Otterkit, in that case," meowed the tom, and Otterkit heard a rustling of fur. "Just walk right over here where there's some light..."

As the long-furred tom moved, Otterkit saw a few slivers of silvery light spill into the tree from the hole that they'd entered, illuminating Molewhisker's pelt, tipping his fur with silver. Grace's eyes flashed like silver and gold in the darkness beside Molewhisker. Hurriedly, Otterkit made his way forward to join them where they crouched around a limp, unmoving pigeon. Molewhisker's head was bent over it - every once in a while the tom would lift up his head and spit out a mouthful of pale gray and white feathers that floated slowly out of the tree on a soft night breeze, looking like ghostly moths or butterflies in the moonlight.

"Here you go, Otterkit," Molewhisker mewed at last, spitting out a few more feathers as he spoke and prodding the pigeon with one paw. "Both of you, dig in. I ate a mouse while I was hunting, so I'll be fine if you two decide to eat all of this."

Otterkit blinked and padded towards the pigeon, bending down to sniff at the featherless patch of skin near its chest. Hardly able to believe what he was about to do, but deciding that he'd better get it over with, Otterkit opened his jaws slowly.

"Thank you, Molewhisker," Grace mewed.

Otterkit's jaws closed abruptly with a snap and he sat up quickly. "Yeah - thanks, Molewhisker," he said hurriedly.

The scruffy tabby she-cat padded up to sit closer to the pigeon, just across from Otterkit - he felt a tingle of relief when he saw her looking at it with a slightly nervous visage. _I dare you to eat it before she does,_ he thought to himself as he bent down again. Glancing up for a moment, Otterkit saw that Grace was mirroring his movement almost exactly, and his short silver whiskers twitched before he could stop them. He looked back down at the pigeon, steeled himself, opened his jaws, and sank his teeth into the bird.

It tasted like nothing he'd ever eaten before, though something about it reminded him of the pieces of grilled chicken that Cody and Kayley liked to sneak under the table to him and Chocolate during their dinnertime - the thought caused a pang of loss in his chest. But the pigeon tasted different somehow, warm and smooth and juicy and..._delicious,_ Otterkit realized, surprised. "It's good!" he mewed, gulping down his bite and looking across the pigeon to see Grace taking a hurried bite as well. Deciding not to bother about the she-kit anymore, Otterkit took another bite out of the pigeon and swallowed it, quickly realizing how hungry he was - he hadn't eaten since that morning, and Chocolate had pulled him away from the food to mess with his head fur before he'd eaten his fill. Ravenously, the kit tore into the pigeon, eating quickly. Eventually he'd eaten all of the de-feathered part, and was starting on one of the wings. It was harder to get a bite of meat, the feathers first obstructing his ability to bite and then getting stuck in his teeth, but Otterkit managed to polish off the wing. Finally satisfied, he sat back from the pigeon and looked up at Molewhisker. "That was really good!" he said again happily.

"I guessed as much," purred the cream-and-brown tom. "Grace, are you about ready to be done too?" he added, looking over at the young she-cat, who was eating very slowly, taking small bites.

"Not quite, thanks, Molewhisker," she replied after swallowing her meat.

"Alright then. Do you mind if Otterkit and I have a little talk about the Clans?"

"Nope," the kit said, returning to the pigeon with a funnily determined look on her face.

"Well, Otterkit," the big warrior said, turning to him, "what do you want to know about a warrior's life?"

"Everything!" Otterkit exclaimed without thinking through his response properly. Quickly realizing how vague his reply had been, the silvery-gray kit added hurriedly, "Um...what..." He remembered something he'd wanted to know earlier. "What's a deputy?"

Molewhisker scratched his ear thoughtfully. "Hmm, well, Clans have a special ranking system. There's a cat in charge of every other cat in the Clan; he - or she - is the leader. His name ends with '-star', symbolizing his special relationship with StarClan."

"StarClan - that's all the dead cats, right?" Otterkit asked, drawing on his memories of their earlier conversation. "How can they have a relationship with any cat?"

"Those who are dead are not truly gone forever," Molewhisker purred. "StarClan live on in the afterlife, speaking with leaders and medicine cats in their dreams and sending visions to guide us. They are represented by Silverpelt and the stars in the night sky."

"Oh," Otterkit said quietly. He already had dozens of questions to ask about StarClan - _how did you speak to them? why did they send visions? what were the visions about? could they come into anyone's dream, or just a leader's?_ - but he held them back.

"Anyways, as I was saying," Molewhisker continued, "leaders have a special connection with our ancestors and old friends. When they become leader, they go to the Moonpool - a special pool up in the hills beyond WindClan and ThunderClan territory - and receive nine lives from StarClan."

"_Nine lives?_ You mean they can die nine times and come back?" Otterkit was stunned. How powerful a leader must be! "I'd like to be leader someday, maybe," he said under his breath.

"Yes, they can indeed," assented the warrior. If he'd heard Otterkit's quieter comment, he didn't show it. "The leader then selects a second-in-command - that cat is their deputy. It's the deputy's duty to organize patrols - patrols are groups of cats that hunt for prey for the Clan and watch the territory's boundaries to make sure that no cat who does not belong in the Clan enters the territory without permission. Of course, ever since the Great Battle, relationships with other Clans haven't been as tense - but I remember in my apprenticeship, the other Clans would rip off your tail for setting a whisker over the border. Not that ShadowClan has changed much, of course; they're territorial as ever..." For a moment, Molewhisker's whiskers twitched and his eyes misted over faintly, as if he were remembering something. He then shook himself slightly and continued. "Then, after the deputy comes - "

"The medicine cat," a new voice chimed in - Grace. Otterkit gritted his teeth, wondering why she had to always interrupt everything. "That's right, isn't it?"

Molewhisker didn't even look offended at her interruption, Otterkit noticed with a spurt of annoyance. "Exactly!" he praised. "The medicine cat is in charge of curing all of the Clan from illnesses and sickness with healing herbs. She - or he - also goes to the Moonpool every half moon to speak with StarClan and receive advice and warnings about the Clan. Then there are the warriors, the main force of the Clan. We hunt, patrol borders, and defend the Clan against enemies. We also train the apprentices, who are young cats who are in the process of learning to be warriors. Apprentices start their education at six moons - when a cat becomes an apprentice, their name is changed to end with '-paw' - for example, you will be Otterpaw, Otterkit. And when an apprentice becomes a warrior, their name is changed yet again to represent who they are. For example, my warrior name is Molewhisker. There are also cats like Olivefall, Redfur, Smokewisp..."

"Sounds like it would be hard to remember," Otterkit reflected a bit ruefully.

"Not as hard as you'd think," the big cat reassured him. "The Clan isn't too large, and you'll soon be able to identify every cat by their sight and their smell. Anyways - oh, where was I...?" Molewhisker rubbed his forehead with a paw, then blinked. "Ah, yes. Apprentices. You'll be apprenticed to a warrior, or if you're lucky, the leader. Certain kits will become medicine cats apprentices, too, but StarClan picks those cats themselves. Your mentor will be in charge of giving you one-on-one training in battle and hunting."

"Have you got an apprentice?" inquired Otterkit, secretly hoping that the friendly tom didn't; Otterkit rather wanted to be Molewhisker's apprentice.

The cream-and-brown warrior's tail twitched. "As a matter of fact, I do. He was just apprenticed to me a few days ago - his name's Weaselpaw. He isn't quite as much of a pawful as his sister Gingerpaw, but he's certainly quite enthusiastic!" Molewhisker chuckled. "I think you'll get along quite well with him." Noting Otterkit's crestfallen look, he mewed, "Don't worry - I'm sure Lionstar will pick out a good mentor for you. He may even mentor you himself, seeing as...well, we'll get to that later tonight, won't we?"

"We'll get to what later tonight?" the small gray kit asked, curiosity piqued.

"We'll get to it later, as I said," replied the big fluffy cat calmly. "Anyways, there are also the queens, she-cats who are near to kitting or who have young kits. As an apprentice, you'll be in charge of looking after them, as well as the elders - making sure their bedding is clean and dry, feeding them, delivering herbs and the like. As for the elders, there are only two of them now, ever since poor old Rosepetal passed on early this newleaf." Molewhisker shook his head. "The loss of her brother last leafbare was a shock to her, I'm afraid. Now only Foxleap and Jayfeather are there, but - " the cream-and-brown tom's long whiskers twitched " - as I told my last apprentice, Granitestripe, Jayfeather's tongue makes up for three dens full of elders."

_What does that mean?_ Otterkit wondered, wrinkling his nose slightly. "Do the...other Clans work like that too?" he asked curiously.

"Yes, they do," Molewhisker confirmed.

The silvery tabby scratched his head with a back paw slowly, then mewed inquisitively, "How exactly did you - all the Clan cats - decide to do that? Why not just live with...well, with people, or with just your families or by yourself if you don't want to live with people?"

"_Well_ now." The long-furred tom stretched, claws rasping against the moss and the tree trunk, and yawned. "That's a long story. I can fill you in on fairly recent history, but I think... Grace?" he mewed.

"Yes?" she instantly responded, tail flicking eagerly.

"Would you like to tell Otterkit about the dawn of the Clans for me?" asked Molewhisker.

"Um...okay," she meowed. "How much should I tell?"

"Hmm, well, Olivefall gave you a pretty thorough image of our entire history while you were talking to her, didn't she?"

"Yes," Grace said hesitantly. "Would you...like me to tell him all of that?"

The cream-and-brown cat shook his head slowly. "No. Why don't you just start with how the Clans started and go through the great journey? I'll pick up after that. Are you fine with that, Otterkit?"

"Sure...I guess," Otterkit mumbled. In truth, he could think of better things to do than listen to Grace go on about anything, but seeing as how it was probably going to be _his_ history as soon as he joined ThunderClan, he decided that he might as well pay attention.

"Okay, then." Grace tilted her head back and closed her eyes for a moment, the moonlight catching on her fur and turning each individual strand to a dazzling silver for a moment before she opened her eyes again and drew away from the light, crouching down into a more comfortable position. "A long time ago, far away in a different forest than the one we're going to, wild cats lived on their own, or in small family groups. They fought with each other constantly. One night all of the cats met together under four trees, by the light of the full moon, but something went wrong and they began to quarrel, then fight." As Grace spoke, Otterkit shut his eyes, letting mental images of the battle flicker through his mind.

"At the end of the fight, many cats lay dead and wounded," the scruffy tabby continued. "As the survivors paused their fight, one of the spirits - that of a cat who had died in the fight that very night - came to them and told them to join together, to form Clans, to be warriors. Five cats - Thunder, Wind, River, Shadow, and Sky - eventually rose to become leaders, and their Cl - "

"Sky?" Otterkit interrupted quizzically. "I don't rememb - "

"Just listen!" Grace snapped, cutting him off just as he had done to her. "Anyways, their Clans were named after them, in honor of them. Cats decided which Clan they would belong to based on what type of prey they hunted - the fish-eaters and river-dwellers went to RiverClan, the rabbit-chasers and the cats who lived on the moor and in tunnels to WindClan, the cats who hunted in the night and liked marshy territory went to ShadowClan, the forest-dwellers joined ThunderClan, and the strong-legged jumpers joined SkyClan.

"Eventually the huma - Twolegs began to take over SkyClan's territory, building nests and...um...Thunderpaths," Grace mewed, eyes gleaming as she said the word. Otterkit decided to assume that a Thunderpath was a road - it sounded like what these wild cats would call a road, anyways. "SkyClan were forced to leave the forest. Eventually they found a home far from the old territories, in a gorge.

"Meanwhile, the other four Clans thrived, defending their borders, hunting prey, and gathering in peace under the full moon. Eventually, though, ThunderClan and RiverClan began to feud bitterly over a part of their territory, as a dark-hearted leader rose to power in ShadowClan and chased WindClan away from the forest territories. Bluestar, the ThunderClan leader, received a prophecy from StarClan that said that fire would save the Clan. The 'fire' actually turned out to be a house cat whose pelt was the color of fire in the sun. He joined the Clan and eventually rose to the position of leader. His name was Firestar." Grace took a deep breath and continued. "Firestar led ThunderClan to victory against many evils that threatened all of the Clans, then settled down to live in peace.

"But seasons later, the Twolegs started to move into the warriors' territories, cutting down trees and destroying the cats' territories. StarClan sent a warrior from each Clan on a journey to find a new home, which they did - that's where the Clans all live now, in four territories surrounding a huge lake." Grace blinked happily. "Molewhisker wanted to tell you the rest - right, Molewhisker?"

Molewhisker nodded. "Have you got all of that so far, Otterkit?" he mewed, and Otterkit nodded. Grace had been talking pretty fast, but he'd been able to secure most of what she'd said in his memory. Molewhisker's tail flicked. "Alright then," he meowed. "After the Clans settled down, there was a prophecy foretelling that three cats, Firestar's kin, would be born with power greater than StarClan. Two of these kits were born to Firestar's daughter - their names were Jaykit and Lionkit, along with their sister, who did not have powers like theirs. Eventually they discovered their powers. Then Firestar's nephew's daughter had a kit, Dovekit, who was the third prophecy cat.

"The Three joined together against a great evil, that of the Dark Forest, the spirits of evil cats who have left this world. They also persuaded the Clans to unite against this evil, and Shadow, Thunder, River, and Wind faced the darkness together. Though all Clans sustained many losses, they survived the battle." For a moment, Molewhisker's fur rose on the back of his neck as though he were facing an invisible enemy, but then it slowly smoothed back down, and he continued to speak. "ShadowClan lost their leader, Blackstar. His deputy Rowanclaw became leader and appointed Toadfoot as deputy. RiverClan lost Reedwhisker, their deputy, and Petalfur was appointed in his place. WindClan lost both their leader Onestar and their deputy Ashfoot - Whitetail, a warrior, was chosen by StarClan to lead them. ThunderClan also lost our leader and deputy...Firestar and Brambleclaw. Lionblaze became the next leader and chose Olivefall, a young warrior, as his deputy."

"H-how many cats died?" Otterkit mewed quietly, shivering. If even leaders, with nine lives, had died, how many ordinary warriors had been lost?

"Many," Molewhisker said heavily. "Thank StarClan, none of my family were lost in the attack...but Foxleap and Olivefall's sister, Icecloud, was killed, and Foxleap himself had to retire to the elders' den due to a leg that had been injured beyond repair. Lionstar and Jayfeather lost their sister Hollyleaf too. Many of my Clanmates died besides those cats...Leafpool, Squirrelflight, Sandstorm, Ferncloud, Mousewhisker, Ivypool, Bumblestripe, Millie, Whitewing, Brightheart, Cloudtail...and countless others were horrifically wounded. Perhaps our worst loss, besides Firestar, was that of Dovewing, the third cat of the prophecy." The tom bowed his cream-and-brown head for a moment, and all three cats sat in silence for a moment.

Finally Molewhisker looked up again. "After that...none of the Clans were ever the same. We were...closer, it seemed. After having stood together against an otherworldly assault for days on end, pelts too muddy and bloody to tell Clanmate from stranger...it was almost as if we were one. True, we grew apart again, but the boundaries between Clans - physical and metaphysical - were never as strong, it seemed. Territory borders were guarded with warnings instead of claws, except in ShadowClan's case, but they always were the least forgiving of Clans." Molewhisker chuckled softly. "Cats took mates in other Clans without strong punishment - their leaders simply looked the other ways. The definition of the warrior code - something you will learn in your apprenticeship - was changed. Cats had had to rely on themselves for leadership too many times during the great battle, without a leader or deputy or StarClan or the code to look to. Some cats began to take mates who did not belong to Clans. Medicine cats, who until then had been celibate, started to take mates and start families as well. The severely underpopulated Clans all started to take in rogues, loners, and house cats who dared to venture into their territories, though ShadowClan was always harsher to these prospective Clanmates than any other Clan...they stayed closer to the code than the rest of us, I must say.

"So for a while...we had peace. The Clans grew. Kits - Clanborn, houseborn, wildborn - were trained as warriors and joined the Clan. But then, out of ShadowClan rose a new threat. The young leader of ShadowClan who called himself Skullstar - though his true name was Darkstorm - started a group, almost a new Clan, of cats from both his Clan and other Clans. They called themselves BloodClan, and they wanted to annihilate all cats who were not Clanborn...but they did not care how many pure-blooded cats they had to go through to do that." Molewhisker's fur rose slightly again. "They were not the Dark Forest, true, but they were a formidable threat.

"They raided other Clans in the dead of night, killing and plundering freshkill piles, trying to remove all 'impure' blood from our world. Eventually Lionstar, our leader, formed a group of cats to combat them - named LionClan, after the ancient Clan, our ancestors, and also after the name that Firestar chose to call the united Clans. Many ThunderClan cats, as well as several cats from other Clans, joined him. But even LionClan could not stop BloodClan. It would take a special cat to do that." Molewhisker's eyes glinted as he pinned Otterkit with his gaze for a moment, and Otterkit blinked, wondering where this was going.

Clearing his throat, Molewhisker kept speaking. "Jayfeather received a prophecy from StarClan, foretelling the coming of a cat with the power to defeat Skullstar once and for all. That cat was you, Otterkit."

Otterkit felt his fur prickling along his spine. "_Me?_" he echoed, hardly able to believe it.

Molewhisker nodded solemnly. "Unfortunately, Skullstar learned of the prophecy, and set out to kill you. Otterstrike and Heartleap took you to Twolegplace, where they planned to raise you until you were old enough to become an apprentice, but somehow Skullstar still managed to find you." The cream-and-brown cat took a deep breath. "One night, Lionstar found out that Skullstar was going to attempt to kill you then, and he took me with him to attempt to warn your parents before Skullstar reached you, but we got there too late. Lionstar got to Skullstar just as he raised his paw to kill you. He had...already murdered your family." Molewhisker blinked slowly. "I'm sorry."

The gray tabby's gaze was fixed securely on his paws. "That's okay," he said quietly, not wanting to look up.

Molewhisker reached out and touched Otterkit gently with his tail as he continued to speak. "Lionstar attacked Skullstar and eventually succeeded in defeating him, throwing him against the side of the abandoned Twoleg nest that your family had been living in and breaking his neck - Lionstar lost most of his power from the prophecy when he defeated the Dark Forest, but he still retained a great deal of skill in battle. He lifted you up and brought you to me, and I took you home."

"Home?" Otterkit echoed.

"I took you to ThunderClan," Molewhisker clarified softly. "The day was stormy, but I got you into the nursery to Auburnlight before it started to rain. Lionstar stayed behind in Twolegplace to bury your family by the Twoleg nest that you'd been living in, then came home as well. We decided that you would be given to Spots and Brownie to raise."

"Why?" asked the silvery kit, aware that his voice sounded accusing. "Why would you give me away when you could just raise me in ThunderClan? And who's Auburnlight?"

"Auburnlight is a ThunderClan warrior who had kits in the nursery then," the cream-and-brown tom told him. "She took care of you for a day. We took you to live with your kin in Twolegplace because your parents had originally planned to raise you there, and we wanted to honor their plan."

"But _why_ did they want to raise me there?" Otterkit knew he sounded like he was whining. _But this isn't fair,_ he said to himself rebelliously. _They could've kept me in ThunderClan...could've let me grow up with kits who liked me...could've told me all of this from the beginning!_

"Because you were prophesied to defeat Skullstar, and it wasn't exactly a secret in ThunderClan. The other Clans were beginning to find out too. Had you grown up with the Clans, you would have been in danger of growing up with an unnaturally inflated ego." Molewhisker's whiskers twitched slightly. "Also, you'd have been in danger from Skullstar's supporters, former members of BloodClan, who were not all exiled from their Clans. They might have raided the camp and endangered your life and the lives of the Clan."

"...Oh," said Otterkit softly. He hadn't thought of it that way. "Wh-what happened to Skullstar, though? Didn't he have nine lives?"

"We don't know," Molewhisker replied, looking uneasy. "Lionstar and I waited for him to recover from his fatal wound, but he did not. Perhaps it was his last life; perhaps the injury took all of his lives at once; perhaps StarClan had refused to give him nine lives. It would not be the first time that that has happened, if the latter was true. At least..." The warrior paused. "That was what we thought. But the next night, as we took you to your mother's sister's home, Lionstar stopped by the nest and found that Skullstar was gone."

"Did he survive?" Otterkit asked breathlessly, feeling a pang of nervousness and fright.

"We hope not," Molewhisker said quietly. "Many of the most ardent members of BloodClan had been chased out of their Clans after Skullstar's death - they may have found his body and taken it away to bury. There _are_ some cats who say he's still alive, that he never died, that he only faked his death..." The cat's deep voice faded away into silence.

Otterkit shivered, not able to help it. "What do you think?"

"He hasn't returned to the Clans yet," the big cream-and-brown tom pointed out, "so that may be a good point. I personally think that his followers took him away and buried him, and that's what most cats think. Don't bother your head about it, Otterkit." Molewhisker reached out and tussled Otterkit's head fur affectionately with a massive cream forepaw.

"We should be going to sleep, don't you think?" Grace mewed, stifling a yawn.

Molewhisker glanced at Otterkit half-ashamedly. "Good point, Grace," he agreed. "Maybe I shouldn't've told you that story right before I put you two to sleep...I'm not good with kits... Will you be all right, Otterkit?"

The kit blinked a few times, then said quietly, "Yeah. I think I will be."

"If you need me, I'll be right here," Molewhisker told him. "As a matter of fact, maybe we should all curl up next to each other - the nights have been pretty cold. Wouldn't want either of my charges freezing on my watch." He curled up in front of the opening in the trunk, his back facing Otterkit and Grace. "You two can sleep up against my back," he said, voice muffled by the fluffy tail that he'd curled around himself.

"Okay!" chirped Grace, and bounded up to the fluffy tom. She carefully scraped up some moss into a pile, stretched, and curled up neatly on it, closing her eyes.

Otterkit slowly followed suit, pulling up moss and piling it up into a bouncy, dry nest. He curled up in it, thinking of how different it was from the floor of Cody's house - thicker, softer, warmer, and altogether more comfortable. For a while the kit tossed and turned, at first kept awake by thoughts of Skullstar and BloodClan and cats hunting for him, then by Grace's slightly sniffly snores and Molewhisker's deep, slow breathing. But finally, some time around moonhigh, he finally dropped off into a deep sleep.

Strangely enough, for once, Otterkit's dreams were not haunted by frightened cries and splintering crashes and splattering blood. Instead, that night he dreamed of clear flowing water that flashed in the sunlight as it flowed swiftly so near to him that it seemed as though he could reach down a paw and touch it. Cold wind rippled his short fur and chilled him to the bone. He could feel his tail dragging in the current, slicked down with water. Somebody was carrying him, gripping his scruff, and voices drifted in the air like echoes, the sound of them barely discernible, but comforting nonetheless.


	5. Chapter 4: Nightgaze of RiverClan

***hums Still Alive***

**Oh - hi there! Yes, I've finally updated - with a RiverClan chapter, as Scarheart requested. ^-^ And I'm thinking about Portal. 'Cause I can.**

**Sorry it took me a while to get this chaptah up - I was finishing 230 frames of animated battle montage for an MEP, as I think I mentioned in the last AN. Rakkety Tam/GoGh Outcast/The Tygrine Cat FTW! xD**

**And of course, talking about animations leads me into telling y'all that I've finally put up an (albeit incomplete) A New Fire animation on YouTube. There shall be a link to it in the doobly-doo...haha, I mean, my profile. xP The animation pretty much blows, which is why it's incomplete - I'm reanimating the whole thing ASAP. But if you like that stuff/want to see what the lovely charries look like in my mind, feel free to go check it out.**

**Let's see...I don't think I want to bore you with stories from my life. Nothing of interest happened in the past week - well, I had a moment of emotional catastrophe over a couple of letters to a magazine written by horribly close-minded followers of my religion. *brandishes spork* Though one of them was pretty funny - suggesting we _run from_ a fictional character, hmm? Really intelligent, my non-friend... oAo Then, because I've been ignoring the Warriors RP website that introduced me to a large part of the Internet that I had not yet explored (e.g. Mweor, Cleverbot, MLIA, and FanFiction) a few years back, I lost my admin position and one of my charries went inactive. But I deserved that, so I won't complain about it to anybody.**

**That's really it - oh yeah, I been working on my entry for Scarheart's contest. It isn't about an ANF character, but it is pretty emotionally draining to do. DDD'8 Probably the angstiest thing I'll ever write, except for possibly one of the ANF characters' backstories. Heh heh heh.**

**...Review responses below. ;3**

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><p><strong>Scarheart:<strong> Congrats on being the first reviewer to get to this chapter! ;D I based dear Chocolate on my younger sister, though you only saw her nice side in this chapter and if you ever see Choco again she'll be grown up enough to not show her mean side. ^-^ Ahahaha, I didn't say that ShadowClan _wasn't_ a mistype - I only hinted that it _might_ not be. Don't worry, if it DOES have a deeper meaning, you'll find out about it someday. I like foreshadowing...I also like Chekhov's Guns, but they're harder for me to pull off... Nah, it'll take something drastic for Otterkit and Grace to really start getting along if they ever do, but _if_ they finally start being nice to each other, they shall like each other quite a bit. Glad you weren't bored reading that info dump that the reader doesn't even need. I tried to make it as interesting as possible. Yes, ThunderClan knows about SkyClan - not sure about the other Clans yet, though... xD Glad that LC and BC make sense, and yes, Lionblaze and Dovewing's powers are WAY too useful, so I took Lion's away and (slightly vengefully) killed Doveh. Sorry to freak you out by reading your mind...it's just a thing I like to do, I'll stop if you want me to. xDDD jk, I just like to touch on everything I possibly can in my review replies. I LOVE to write review replies - it's how I get myself pumped for writing a new chapter. ;3

**dragonFELL the anonymous: **When I say monster, I mean monster. xD Perhaps I should've put the page number at the beginning to let y'all know exactly how big it was...ehm, too late now, I guess... Yeah, I suppose that a lot of folks won't come after this now if they look at the length. But I can hope! *glances at Shattered and Sidestep* _Those_ are pretty long, and the peoples love 'em! I'm trying to just write a very good-quality, intriguing story, and I'm counting on that to get it more well-known - as far as I can tell that's basically what happened with other long, famous fanfics. We'll see. The reason my chapters are so long is because I like to cover at least a day in them. Of course, they may get shorter as I try to update sooner; plus, the beginning of stories is usually where I do my info dumping. I should be able to control the length somewhat once I've thoroughly described the world in which the kitties live, history and all! ^-^ Oh, A Song of Ice and Fire? I've heard of that in many places. I really NEED to read those...I procrastinate all the time, but I'll try to get ahold of it ASAP. I always like book recommendations! And yes, I think that crying is overdone in Warriors fanfic. I wouldn't mind it in well-written fics, but it happens so much in every - single - fanfic...I can't bear it anymore! xD

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><p><strong>Quick chronology note: This chapter takes place the morning after Ottereh &amp; Co. camp out in the log.<strong>

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><p><span>Chapter 3 :: Nightgaze of RiverClan<span>

The dawn came much too soon for Nightgaze.

Oh, sure, the rose and golden-streaked sky was beautiful - not that she saw much of it through her bleary eyes. The scent of early newleaf flowers blossoming in droves all over the marshes was to die for - not that she smelled many of them through the chronic stuffy nose that _would _accompany her every newleaf morning, Wingfur's specialized herb compounds be damned. Thank StarClan, her _ears_ didn't stuff up as well - but she wouldn't be able to hear the crystal-clear sound of the river running, not with the apprentices meowing. She wouldn't hear the -

"Nightgaze, you awake?"

Nightgaze's ears cleared up suddenly, for whatever reason. "Oh, hi, Rainpool!" she meowed, perking up immediately. There was some comfort to be had in friends, even if one was being sent out to perform a task that certainly qualified as cruel and unusual punishment. "How're you?"

The gray dappled she-cat who'd just addressed Nightgaze shifted from paw to paw. "Well, I'm good, but do you know how late it is?"

"Do I know how late it is? But why should I need to, integrated training doesn't start unt - Oh, frog dung, the dawn patrol!" Nightgaze sprang to her feet, shaking moss out of her long bi-colored pelt as she glanced anxiously around the den. "Who's up?"

The young deputy's friend blinked. "Um...Wolffang's awake, and so's Cloudshade. Heronflight and Frostspot are out there too, and - "

"Great, would you go tell, erm, Cloudshade to lead a border patrol? He can take...he can take you and Heronflight and Wolffang, oh, and send Moonpaw too, she was just apprenticed a few days ago, so she could use the experience."

"I haven't eaten breakfast yet," Rainpool informed Nightgaze, her tone light, "but your wish is my command, O great and powerful deputy." She ducked her head, whiskers twitching furiously.

"Come off it." Nightgaze rolled her eyes as she spoke. "You know I don't mean it like that - just - could you do it? Please?"

"You'll have to prove your superior skill first!" Rainpool chuckled. At Nightgaze's bemused look she sighed, her deep blue eyes glimmering with mischief. "I challenge you to defeat me in a moss fight."

Nightgaze purred and scratched her head. _You really shouldn't do it,_ she reproved herself even as she spoke. "Fine. I accept your challenge." The young deputy shot out a paw towards Rainpool, catching her friend unawares and slamming her face into the moss that made up the nests in the warriors' den and also thickly covered the ground. While the dappled gray she-cat struggled back to her paws, spitting out moss, Nightgaze seized the opportunity to claw together a good-sized moss ball. The moment Rainpool had shaken her head free of any moss that had just become attached to it, Nightgaze flung her moss ball with deadly accuracy.

"Hey!" Rainpool spluttered through a mouthful of moss strands. Nightgaze thought she could take a moment to purr at her friend's misfortune, but quickly realized that this moss fight was serious business when a storm of moss bits flew into her face, some of the pieces landing in her eye. Shaking her head furiously, the black-and-white she-cat stumbled backwards, not even really realizing that she was moving. Before she could stop herself, Nightgaze's foot slipped and she fell over backwards, landing in a heap on top of some unfortunate dozing cat.

"I am _so_ sorry," Nightgaze squeaked, feeling the cat shift under her as she scrabbled her paws against its slick pelt, trying to get off of it. "I mean...words can't express my - my profound repentance." _Please, StarClan, let it be Brownheart. Or Cloudshade, even if Rainpool said he was awake. Or at least Swiftwind._ "I swear I didn't do that on purpose - I - " The deputy broke off abruptly as her gaze met two glinting yellow-green eyes, somehow cold as ice despite their golden tint.

A large black cat slowly rose out of the moss that covered the den floor, shrugging Nightgaze off as he would a leaf that had dared attach itself to his pelt. "I don't doubt that," he growled, with a withering glare towards her general vicinity, as if focusing in on her face was more effort than it was worth.

"Oh." Nightgaze blinked, her eyes wide, as she managed to regain her feet and stepped back hurriedly. "Um. Marshclaw." The young deputy gritted her teeth and shifted from foot to foot, staring hard at her paws. "I am so, so sorry. So sorry." _Dammit_, she spat inwardly. _Why? Why him, StarClan? Why?_

"It was my fault too," Rainpool chipped in nervously, eyeing Marshclaw with trepidation.

"Your fault?" Marshclaw's voice dripped sarcasm. "Your _fault_? But how can this be your _fault_?"

"This?" The dappled gray she-cat's eyebrows knitted together, sky-blue eyes showing her perplexedness. "What do you mean?"

"Obviously our revered deputy has some special task for me to do, as she has deigned to descend from her lofty position nearly before dawn and wake a cat who had been out half the night hunting," Marshclaw said, eyes glittering with malice. "So what do you need, Nightgaze? A forest in the freshkill pile? The sky on a stick? Happy to oblige."

Nightgaze finally regained herself. "N-no," she replied, holding her head high and trying not to shrink under Marshclaw's challenging gaze. Controlling the stutter, the black-and-white she-cat added, "I was...playing...with Rainpool. I didn't mean to disturb any cat. It won't happen again." _Why are you behaving like this to him? You're the deputy,_ she heard a voice in the back of her mind chide her, but she pushed it away. She'd made a mistake and needed to apologize for it. No matter what she did, she wouldn't be able to come out looking like the cat in the right, and at least confessing would keep him from saying anything too bad behind her back. _'Our deputy was playing with her friend and accidentally stepped on me in the process' is better than 'our deputy was running around waking up cats for fun because she didn't want to send out morning patrols', _she said to herself sternly.

"It had better not," growled Marshclaw as he sank gracefully back into his nest and curled up into a tight ball of glimmering black fur, pulling moss over himself with one paw. "Or by StarClan, I'm going to Mallowstar."

"Yes, I completely understand," stammered Nightgaze, backing towards the entrance of the den. She stepped on another sleeping cat by mistake, but this one just grumbled and half-heartedly slapped at her before returning to snoring - it was probably Swi. Rainpool followed her friend nervously out of the warriors' den, stepping much more carefully around the sleeping cats' nests than Nightgaze had.

As the two she-cats entered the shady, still fairly dark clearing in the center of the RiverClan camp, the warriors who had already awoken glanced in their direction. The ever-alert Wolffang's pale blue eyes found them first - the she-cat's glance lingered on them ever so briefly before sweeping away to rest on something else. Cloudshade was curled up by the fresh-kill pile, eating a piece of prey. When the long-furred gray-and-white tom looked up, his eyes met Nightgaze's and he inclined his head slightly before returning to his vole. Heronflight and Frostspot, who were chatting together, both waved their tails in greeting to Nightgaze and Rainpool and meowed loud good-mornings.

"D'you think we have time to share a meal with them?" Nightgaze asked her friend hopefully.

Rainpool tilted her head to one side and regarded her brother and the lively white she-cat thoughtfully. "No, probably not - but even if we did, I wouldn't want a conversation with your beloved to muddle your head before you headed out to train apprentices. You'd be liable to let one of those poor Windies drown while you thought those romantic thoughts about him!" The warrior snickered and poked Nightgaze playfully with a pale gray paw - to tease the deputy about her nonexistent affection for Rainpool's brother was one of the dappled she-cat's favorite hobbies these days.

"Shut up," Nightgaze purred, butting Rainpool's shoulder with her head. "Everyone knows he's head over paws for Frostspot."

The blue-eyed she-cat blinked. "Aww, and so considerate of her beloved's feelings!" she cooed, whiskers twitching madly. "I'm sure that if you told him how you feel - "

"Okay, yeah, I get it," the deputy interrupted, suddenly tired of the game. "He loves me forever, I'm smitten by him, whatever. I think I have a dawn patrol to organize, though. Cloudshade!" she called, raising her voice. The senior warrior blinked and looked up from the remains of his meal. "Come over here - Wolffang, would you come here too, and Heronflight, would you fetch Moonpaw and then do the same?"

"Sure, Nightgaze!" Heronflight called across the clearing jovially. With a quick parting lick on Frostspot's shoulder, he padded swiftly towards the apprentices' den.

"I see what you're doing," muttered Rainpool mischievously in Nightgaze's ear. "Separating him from his current love interest. Trying to get him alo - "

"Yes, Nightgaze?" Cloudshade meowed, dipping his head to her as he padded towards her. "What was it you wanted?"

"Dawn patrol," Wolffang stated flatly, walking slowly up behind Cloudshade, who was now standing in front of Nightgaze.

Nightgaze nodded. "Yeah, um, Wolffang's right. Cloudshade, I'd like you to lead a roundabout patrol of both borders, and feel free to hunt on your way back. Take Wolffang, Rainpool, Heronflight, and Moonpaw." _I'll choose to ignore that, Rainpool, _she said to herself fiercely as her friend shot her a resentful glare and swatted her tail with a forepaw.

"Moonpaw isn't old enough to walk for that long," Wolffang pointed out, raising one furry eyebrow slightly. "But if you say - "

"No, no, no," Nightgaze quickly interrupted the warrior, hurriedly running through her options while repeating herself. "No. Um. When she gets tired, Heronflight can bring her back."

Wolffang blinked slowly, and Nightgaze knew that when the she-cat opened her mouth, she'd say something else that made Nightgaze look like a fool - of course, that wasn't hard for anyone to do, she reflected bitterly. Sure enough, Wolffang mewed, "And what do Cloudshade and I do if we find, say, intruders on the territory after Heronflight and Moonpaw have departed?"

_Curses on Wolffang's intelligent questions._ Nightgaze couldn't come up with a better answer than a half-hearted, "Run back towards camp and yowl for reinforcements?"

Even Cloudshade snickered at that, a depressing accompaniment to Wolfgaze's snort and Rainpool's giggle. Nightgaze bit her lip hard and stared across the clearing at the apprentices' den, willing Heronflight to emerge. For once, luck was with her, as the blue-gray and white tom poked his head out of the den almost immediately after she cast her gaze in that direction, and the rest of him quickly followed. Brownheart's silver apprentice ambled amiably out after him, her paws moving as if she were floating across the ground. She paused and looked up at the sky, and Nightgaze thought she said something but wasn't sure.

"No time for that," Heronflight responded to Moonpaw. He was already halfway across the clearing, tail twitching in anticipation.

Moonpaw blinked and padded after him with a vaguely happy look drifting across her countenance, and Nightgaze sighed. She hadn't gotten the chance to speak to the newest apprentice yet, but the deputy had a feeling that something wasn't quite normal about the small silver she-cat. Not that Nightgaze was in any position to be making statements about a cat's normality, of course.

"Good morning, Nightgaze," Moonpaw mewed airily as she and Heronflight reached the group of cats gathered near the camp entrance. "I was just speaking to Heronflight here about the lack of spirits lingering about our camp, and the omens that might bear."

The black-and-white deputy blinked, focused slowly on Moonpaw's bright but serious face, and blinked again, shaking her head hard. "Oh, really?" she finally mewed lamely. "Are there usually, um, spirits in a...Clan camp?"

"Yes," the pale silver she-cat asserted, her large dark blue eyes widening sincerely. "Spirits are supposed to linger in places where there is good fortune and harmony. They're large and pale with wings."

"What kind of spirits?" Nightgaze asked dubiously.

Moonpaw's eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "I don't know," she finally meowed lightly. "I can ask my father later, though. I hope there isn't a problem with the Clan. That's usually what a lack of spirits signifies."

"Uh-huh." The young deputy nodded slowly. _Great StarClan, I swear I have never met the like of this apprentice before,_ she muttered to herself, feeling rather flabbergasted. "Erm. Cloudshade, Wolffang, the rest of you - " she waved her tail at Rainpool, Heronflight, and Moonpaw " - you'd better go. I'd better go, too - I have to meet my, ahem, integrated trainees at the WindClan border." Nightgaze's eyes darted around the group of cats, hoping for a twitch of whiskers at the least, but saw nothing. "Okay. Bye."

"You heard her, let's go," Wolffang mewed brusquely to Cloudshade, who wasn't moving.

"Right. Come on, everyone," the long-furred tom instructed, flicking his tail. The other cats gathered behind him, and like that, they were off, pushing through the hanging strands of moss that concealed the RiverClan camp entrance from the outside. Rainpool turned slightly and flicked her tail as a goodbye to Nightgaze right before she departed.

Nightgaze's whiskers twitched despite herself. "Bye, Rainpool," she murmured, raising a paw slightly in farewell as her friend disappeared through the moss curtain.

When the dangling green plants stopped moving, Nightgaze stretched and got to her feet. There was no getting out of it now. The black-and-white she-cat headed out of camp, muttering a half-hearted goodbye to Frostspot. Even as Nightgaze began to slip through the mossy veil, she spied Wingfur out of the corner of her eye. The silky-pelted medicine cat was padding slowly towards Mallowstar's den, some unidentifiable healing herbs dangling from his mouth. Nightgaze glared half-heartedly at the dark entrance to the den under the riverbank. _Stupid old cats,_ she sighed to herself, but she felt a rush of affection and slight concern for her leader. _Aches and pains kicking in at the worst times. I don't envy the poor fellow._

With that, Nightgaze turned and resolutely stalked out of the camp, setting her face towards the WindClan border and the ascending sun.

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><p><em>Aching joints, my tail,<em> Nightgaze scoffed, kicking half-heartedly at a pale pink flower in her path. It crumpled, and the she-cat felt a twinge of guilt but didn't stop to try and push it back into place - she was already trailing far behind the chattering youngsters. _It's the deputy's job,_ the black-and-white RiverClan cat continued to herself, huffing and puffing slightly as she slogged through a particularly deep and mucky spot in the marsh, _the deputy's job to organize patrols, which I had done all through tomorrow's sunhigh fishing patrol...and it's the deputy's job - _she dodged a rock in her path and picked up her pace - _to supervise normal training and assessments...and the leader takes the stupid integrated training..._ Nightgaze had finally caught up to the main group of apprentices. Stifling a yawn, she padded into the middle of the group, glancing around herself a bit guiltily. None of the apprentices seemed to notice her presence. _The stupid integrated training... StarClan, I'm tired, wish there was something I could do to - _she paused her thoughts to yawn _- wake myself up..._

"Um... 'scuse me, deputy..." The voice was quiet and timid. Nightgaze blinked and looked down into the wide sun-yellow eyes of a ThunderClan apprentice.

"Yes - er - Lavenderpaw?" Nightgaze replied. _I hope that's your name,_ she informed hopefully-Lavenderpaw mentally.

"Yes," affirmed the small gray she-cat, blinking slowly.

"Yes," repeated Nightgaze, then caught herself. "I mean, what is it that you need, Lavenderpaw?"

The apprentice's big eyes narrowed slightly in confusion. "Where is it that we were going again?" she asked quietly.

"Where is it that we were..." Nightgaze's voice trailed off as she looked around herself. Where _had_ they been going, she wondered, because there had to be a _had_ in there, because this place was certainly _not_ where they were supposed to train. The group of apprentices was standing at the edge of the boggiest, deepest, most treacherous part of the marsh. In places, small yellow flowers dotted the watery muck, adding a bit of brightness to the landscape, but the place was mostly depressingly dark and muddy, decorated in detailed patterns of the colors brown, brown, and brown.

Besides its unappealing looks, this part of the marsh was quite dangerous as well - there were whispered tales of drowned apprentices and kits who ran away from camp to play, their scent-trails lost in this very part of the marsh and never picked up again. Nightgaze herself had had a close call here in her apprenticeship, thanks to a certain now-ShadowClan leader and some ThunderClan apprentices.

_Apprentices!_ Nightgaze hurriedly reminded herself why she was here at all. _Frog dung._ "We...ahem, aren't supposed to be here," she mewed lamely.

"Obviously," the deputy thought she heard somebody scoff under their breath.

She narrowed her eyes but didn't comment on the remark. "Follow me," the long-furred she-cat said briskly, and marched away from the deep marsh, glancing behind herself a few times to make sure that the apprentices were complying. They were, but their paws dragged and they grumbled quietly with every step.

"I heard," somebody's voice said softly, their tone muffled purposefully, but not so quiet that Nightgaze couldn't hear it. "I heard that she only got to be deputy because the leader's, like, her dad."

"Shh - she'll hear you," someone else said - this voice was familiar. It belonged to Swanpaw.

"Yeah, it's true." This from Kitepaw, who didn't even bother to whisper.

Nightgaze winced and tried to mentally block out the conversation while she also attempted to focus on where they were going. _Let's see - this isn't the right place to turn, no, we're going...going... Where did you say you took them last week, Mallowstar? Where are we going? I think he said that - _

"But... how old is she?" An unidentifiable voice again. "I mean, she must be sort of good at deputy stuff, right?"

"Well - " A new voice, that of Nightgaze's own apprentice, Creekpaw, made its way nervously into the conversation. "Well, she - "

"Shut up, kittypet," Kitepaw interrupted. (Nightgaze cringed inwardly but pretended that she hadn't heard - she hated conflicts with the domineering apprentice.) "She's only been a warrior for about four seasons, and her skills are absolute frog dung."

There was an outbreak of nervous whispering among the group of apprentices, punctuated by a few giggles from those who found RiverClan curses amusing.

"_You_ shut up," Creekpaw snapped back, his voice becoming louder as he spoke. "You don't know anything about Nightgaze. You don't know anything about anything, because you're an inbred freak!"

Gasps and more giggles erupted from the group of apprentices. Nightgaze clenched her teeth and continued walking - _I'm _never_ doing this again,_ she vowed grimly. _I'll go back to camp after this...and collapse on my nest...and nap...and then I'll proceed to tell Mallowstar that I'm not doing this integrated training again, I don't care what he does, aches and pains my tail, he can shove his aches and pains up his -_

There was a chorus of shocked yowls and mews from the group of adolescents behind her. The sound of furious hissing and snarling followed it, punctuated by a few pained yelps. Nightgaze spun around. Her foot slipped on a muddy spot and she scrabbled furiously for a moment to regain her balance. Then she stared speechlessly for a few hearbeats at the scene before her, trying to collect herself and say something to defuse the situation.

Kitepaw's silver and black fur was standing straight up on his spine, and his lips were drawn back, exposing his small but sharp pure white teeth. "Say that again, no-Clan!" the older tom dared Creekpaw, crouching low and hissing warningly.

Creekpaw was climbing slowly to his feet, shaking out his fur and licking casually at a scratch on his shoulder. "Why?" he snarked back at Kitepaw, pale amber eyes glinting daringly. "D'you enjoy being insulted now, or is it just my natural charisma and elegant tongue?"

Finally Nightgaze managed to regain control of herself. She had to put a stop to this before it became a full-blown fight. "Creekpaw! That's enough!" she croaked, then shook herself and coughed a few times to clear her throat. There were muted snickers throughout the crowd of apprentices, and Kitepaw's white whiskers twitched visibly. Nightgaze narrowed her eyes. She was _not_ going to be shown up by an apprentice, especially not during integrated training. "Kitepaw," she growled, trying to sound like Mallowstar did when he reprimanded young cats for doing something wrong. She failed miserably, but at least her voice was clear and firm. "Kitepaw, why are you attacking Creekpaw?" The deputy deliberately ignored the conversation that had led to the quarrel.

"He called me an inbred _freak_," Kitepaw replied, shaking out his fur and holding his head up high. His yellow-green eyes flashed in the dawn light, and Nightgaze felt intimidated in spite of herself.

"And why did you do that, Creekpaw?" the black-and-white deputy asked, struggling to keep her voice even.

Creekpaw glared sullenly at the ground. "He was telling lies about you."

Nightgaze felt a pang somewhere deep inside her, but she quickly quelled it. _Yes. He was telling lies about me,_ she reminded herself. "Well - _if_ that's true," she hurriedly added, making sure to give Kitepaw his precious benefit of the doubt. "If that's true, your desire to, um, support me as your mentor and deputy was, uh, appreciated..." _Why_ did Kitepaw have to pin her with his hard, gleaming eyes at this moment? It reminded her of what Marshclaw, his father, did - and Marshclaw was quite possibly the cat that Nightgaze feared most. "_But_," she forged ahead bravely, "you handled the situation wrong. Next time, just...just try to talk it over nicely with Kitepaw - " Creekpaw snorted softly and wrinkled his nose " - just _try_, and don't fight..." Nightgaze was becoming confused. Whenever a cat stared at her, particularly with malevolence, it tended to have that effect. She shuffled her paws. "Well. We'd better hurry along to the lake, then."

"We went to the lake last time." Kitepaw's voice was laden with exaggerated annoyance and false pity. "We're supposed to go to the river this time."

"R-right," Nightgaze hurriedly corrected herself, hating the quavering in her voice. "The river. Sorry - I'm a little...out of it today..." She trailed off miserably and began to pad in the direction of the river, glancing behind herself a few times to make sure the apprentices weren't getting in another fight. _I've got to be competent enough to prevent _that_, haven't I?_

There were exactly seven apprentices participating in this integrated training - two ThunderClan, two WindClan, and three RiverClan. The WindClan apprentices looked to be the oldest, perhaps even older than Creekpaw, who was eight moons old and thus the oldest RiverClan apprentice. One of the two toms was a brown tabby, a bit stocky for a WindClan cat but with long legs. The other WindClan apprentice - probably his brother - was dark reddish-brown with a unique dark tabby-striped tail and dark golden eyes. Nightgaze remembered that the tabby's name was Cedarpaw, but his brother's name evaded her mind. The ThunderClan apprentices, Lavenderpaw and Foxpaw, looked as if they were closer to Kitepaw and Swanpaw's ages as opposed to Creekpaw's - they had to be at least seven moons, of course, as they were participating in integrated training, but they didn't seem much older than that in Nightgaze's opinion. Lavenderpaw reminded Nightgaze strongly of Swanpaw in her personality, but Foxpaw seemed like a nice enough cat, quiet and dependable and - thank StarClan - obedient to a fault.

And then there were the four RiverClan apprentices - _well, that's three,_ Nightgaze corrected herself, and not for the first time thanked StarClan that Moonpaw was still far too young to attend integrated training. That one had at least a moon to go, and hopefully by then Nightgaze would be able to extract herself from this duty that had been - quite unfairly, in her opinion - placed upon her shoulders. Moonpaw was completely unmanageable - oh, she seemed like a sweet cat, but she was the closest thing to insane Nightgaze had ever seen. That, along with Kitepaw's pureblood mania, Swanpaw's giggliness, and Creekpaw's various complexes, would make the next two seasons absolutely unforgettable, Nightgaze was certain. And it wasn't the good kind of unforgettable that Nightgaze was envisioning. _It's more of a clawing and yowling unforgettable, in my mind, _Nightgaze said to herself drily, and glanced around to make sure that she was still on the right path.

Thankfully, she was. Unfortunately, the group of cats was fast approaching the fishing spot at the river. _Who came up with this integrated training idea anyways? _fumed Nightgaze, turning aside to stalk down a fairly well-hidden path and feeling a glimmer of pride at her ability to remember this easy way to reach the river. _I know Mallowstar was all right with it, in any case, he's been RiverClan leader since StarClan knows when - I need to have words with him about that - this is the stupidest idea..._ The black-and-white she-cat sighed and turned her head slightly, making sure that the apprentices were following her. They were. Well, that was good, in any case.

The young deputy had come to a part of the narrow, fairly untravelled path that was usually hard to get down without slipping, but Nightgaze was quite sure that she'd embarrassed herself enough today in front of these apprentices. She let her eyes drift up and down the muddy slope, over every crushed green reed and every small puddle, every river-smoothed pebble and every rock glistening with dark moss. _Alright, Nightgaze, you're going to get down this slope, and you aren't going to slip._

Having thoroughly encouraged herself, Nightgaze took a deep, barely audible breath and padded down the slope, head held high, setting her paws in the driest, most slip-proof spots. She was faintly aware of a few snickers among the group of apprentices, but she fiercely told herself to ignore them as she set her paws on firmer ground again and the steep slope leveled out into a smooth - if winding - path that led towards a small beach.

"Well, come on then," she mewed briskly, tail twitching, as she stared up at her apprentices. "You've all padded through RiverClan territory several times before. Hurry up; there are sparring matches to be held and fish to be caught."

Nightgaze tried not to be a vindictive cat on principle, but she could hardly suppress the strong desire to laugh that she felt when Creekpaw's foot slipped and the sandy-colored tom shot down the slope, bowling over Kitepaw as he skidded to a halt where the ground dried out again. The other apprentices seemed to have no such concept of honor, and they had a good chuckle over it as Kitepaw picked himself up slowly and Creekpaw shook the mud out of his fur, wrinkling his nose slightly.

Maybe she _could_ survive this day, after all.

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><p><strong>OHGAWSH. Now this chapter has no redeeming qualities, I swear. oAo I promise that Nightgaze will become more interesting once the main plot (Otterkit's life) picks up. I just had no imagination these past few weeks. T~T Next few chapters should be better - I'm planning on doing another Otterkit chapter next, and then either a WindClan chapter or a Quailkit chapter. We'll see. Of course, I'mma try to put up my entry for Scarheart before then, so next chapter may be a bit late in coming too. Sorreh.<strong>

**I think one of the reasons this chapter was so hard for me to write is because Nightgaze is a very different character from Otterkit or Quailkit. I don't always have trouble writing adult characters, but Nightgaze is an interesting person - er, cat. She's somewhat less observant of the world around her, hence the lack of description. I'd been trying to forcefully insert descriptive paragraphs into this story, but I realized that I was fighting a losing battle against my character's voice and stopped attempting. Besides that, Nightgaze is also an inner monologuer, as you may've noticed. She talks to herself in her head a lot. There's no particular reason for this - she really doesn't have _that_ many problems compared to some of the characters you'll be meeting in ANF, she just likes to do that. Also, she's extremely insecure around many cats for reasons that were mentioned in this chapter and will be elaborated upon as the story goes on - namely, her _extremely_ _questionable_ (read: nonexistent) qualifications for being deputy.**

**Also...I have a feeling that somebody will think that Nightgaze is far too immature. That's because she's young. Not even young in terms of leader/deputy/MC standards, but young by WARRIOR standards. She's only seven seasons (a year and three-quarters) old. Yup. I kid you not. She has only been a warrior for three quarters of a year. **

**Next RC chapter won't be coming for a while, but it should be more fun, since Moonpaw will be in it moar. I love that girl so much~ Not Swanpaw though, she's as close to a prep as a warrior can get. She does experience character development though. Spoiler. lol**

**Kitepaw annoys me. -_- But Creekpaw doesn't, he's cool, if rather stupid. xP**

**Anywho, hope this was at least okay to some o' you. The important thing is that now that I've got this out of my way I can devote myself to a certain oneshot...mwahaha...angst. x3**


	6. Chapter 5: Otterkit of Twolegplace

**So while I was writing this chapter, I looked up mustelids, just to make sure that they were what I thought they were. Which they were. But, back to what I was getting at, Eurasian otters are really adorable. And so are ferrets and weasels and such like. :3 Go look at a picture of a Eurasian otter. Or any otter. Go on, do it! xD And while we're discussing animals that have cameos in this chapter, those of you who don't know what a cicada's molted skin looks like and does are really missing out. I love those things so much...I may have a molted-cicada-skin fetish. Heehee. I just added a reference to one into this chapter on a whim, but I might make them a recurring joke-ish thing.**

**I really don't have much else to say, other than it's my monster contest entry oneshot's fault that this update is super late, so you should totally go R&R it. *tempts* Also, this chapter is pretty much filler, and it's VERY SHORT too (at least for one of my chapters), as I just wanted to get something up before a _certain person _lost their sanity. It's a very pretty and descriptive filler, though, and it has FORESHADOWING. Or hindshadowing. Or hinting at...things you don't know. Possibly from the backstory. I shouldn't be telling you this. x3 Plus, next chapter will most likely be a continuation of this, in which Gracey and Ottery have their AWESOME MOMENT OF CROWNING - ahem, apprenticeship ceremony. ...Spoiler. xD**

**I don't own the Clans. I don't own Lionstar, Jayfeather, Foxleap, Molewhisker, Mallowstar, or any other canon characters. I don't own a lot of the storyline, especially in regards to Otterkit (actually, I own most of the storyline in regards to all the other characters, including Quaily and Nighty *pride*). There are also a bunch of minor characters that are really not mine either. Because, although I can come up with original characters, I prefer to steal other people's. Like YOURS, reviewers who submitted cats. *trollface***

**So let's go respond to reviews~! My responses shall be rather chipper, as it were, because I'm in a good mood today due to the fact that three people cried over my oneshot (shameless bragging). I feel sadistic, but it's that happy kind of sadism. xP**

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><p><strong>Scar<strong> - That's Nightgaze, all right! Glad you liked her; she's the only main PoV character who also has a PoV in the prequel, so basically you'll always get to look forward to chapters with her. ;3 Marshclaw, yes, he's nasty but still somehow a bit likable, isn't he? He will play a pretty significant role, being Nighty's major antagonist within the Clan and so forth. You think he'd make a good deputy? Let's see if he ever gets the chance. Bwahaha. Moonpaw, she's awesome, and as to the spirits with wings - AHAHAHAAA. I've got something good planned with those in one of the next RiverClan chapters~ Integrated training. *nods sagely* That'll be delved into more as the story moves along. And Kitey was meant to be that sort of character. Watch him as he DOESN'T get into a relationship with somebody you've already met and like! And I posted ATWL3. And yes. It can only get better as his life picks up. Which means that this chapter, in which he's apprenticed, ought to cause a ripple effect causing the other chapters to get better - I certainly hope so! We'll see if it does, though. By the way, if I don't win ATWL, I have an axe and directions to your neighborho - *coughcough* I mean, I'll love you anyways. 83 (I _promise_ that first one was a joke)

**dragonFELL** - Hithere! YES, LET IT BE KNOWN. }:U And howdareyoustalkme, you stalker. You should know where I get that dialogue now that you stalk me. jk, I don't really know where I get it. That was one of the lines that I actually had to think over before writing it down - usually my characters just come to me, but alliterative snarkiness is a special brand of speaking. Sooo I suppose I got it from my superior mind. Heh. Sadism is fun - I was happy when I found out that people cried over my writing. Very, very happy. And whenever I think about a Certain Character Who You Have DEFINITELY NOT Met Yet who is destined to die a bloody, horrific, traumatic, pointless death, I start to snicker, because I can hardly imagine anyone's reactions to its sudden death. ...Okay, changing subjects really fast. I suppose you like Creeky then? And thanks for the compliment, and - _you nominated me for Story of the Month_? Thankyouthankyouthankyou! I know I most likely don't deserve to win _that_, but I appreciate the fact that you think I do! :-) Glad you like large twisty plot reveals, because there's an unholy amount of 'em planned in this fanfic. *evil cackle* And as for info dumping, I don't think I'll have to do any of it very much anymore in this fanfic, and when I do do it it'll be mainly info dumping about things in my universe that none of you know about, so it ought to be more interesting, which is good. BTW, your Glasses of Nerddom look stunning - simply dashing, dahling. ;-)

**The Bookish Owl** - Yay! A new reviewer, whose reviews are of substantial length! Welcome welcome welcome! (...pleasedon'teverleave. *stalkerface*) So I'm guessing you like Creekpaw too? xD Two people have quoted him now without specifically saying whether they like the fellow or not, so I'm feeling rather lost in regards to his approval ratings, as it were. Sorry for daunting you, haha. And look! I'm writing! So you can maintain your sanity! OMG YES I PUT YOUR CHARACTERS IN THERE! ;DDD

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><p><strong>On with the story! I know I always say this, but I'll try to update faster next time. I might actually be able to keep that promise, as I don't have any great nasty ATWL contest to write for. x'D Just kidding, Scarheart, that was one of my favorite things to write besides ANF so far. ^-^<strong>

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><p><span>Chapter 5 :: Otterkit of Twolegplace<span>

Otterkit was first roused by the faint chirruping of birds outside the hollow tree trunk. For a moment he lay there, eyes closed, half-denying his senses, certain that he must still be in his Twolegs' house. His memory told him that such a thought was false, as did the twittering and singing of the birds in his ears, and the heady scent of new spring growth, and the tickling sensation of moss brushing his nose -

"AH-CHOO!" Otterkit sneezed loudly. His eyes flew open involuntarily, and he knew that Molewhisker's visit had not been a dream.

A single faint ray of golden light slanted over Molewhisker's thick brown-and-cream fur into the log, illuminating the big tom's face, eyes closed in blissful sleep. Grace's fluffy side rose and fell as she snored gently - did she know that she snored? Otterkit made a mental note to mention it to her sometime. A bit of light reflected off of the gleaming tags of her collar onto the rough, damp wood on the inside of the tree, the pale, shimmering dapples shuddering as Grace breathed.

Very quietly, Otterkit began to pick his way around the other two cats, lifting his dark gray paws high over the bristling moss and carefully trying to avoid setting them down on somebody's legs or tail or ears. He managed to make it halfway past Molewhisker when he accidentally stepped on the ThunderClan warrior's tail.

Molewhisker emitted a tired but not quite grumbling growl. His eyes slid open as he mumbled sleepily, "Took th' dawn patrol yesterday, Olivefall...go get s'mother cat to help you..." His amber eyes began to slide shut again.

Abandoning his game of silent sneaking, Otterkit mewed half-nervously, half-amusedly, "Molewhisker, it's me. Um...Otterkit."

With a surprised snort, Molewhisker bounced up, his rumpled headfur and sleep-bleared eyes making him look half-crazed. He tilted his head to one side, then the other, and shook it purposefully. Even after this shaking, quite a few pieces of moss still remained tangled in his long cream-and-brown pelt, and Molewhisker began to swat at them with a forepaw, mumbling to himself under his breath. He acknowledged Otterkit with a nod, then did not speak for a while as he cleaned out his tangled pelt.

It seemed that Molewhisker's sudden awakening had jolted Grace out of her slumber too, as the she-cat's head was rising out of a pile of loose moss. She shook her head too, her collar tags jingling, and then, without bothering to greet Otterkit, she sat down and began to wash her face.

As neither of his companions seemed to be interested in making conversation at the moment, Otterkit decided that he might as well clean himself off too. Raising his right forepaw, he lapped at it busily until it was nicely dampened, then reached up and began patting carefully at his face, tugging out the few stray bits of bedding material that were lodged in his headfur and just overall straightening up - something that Chocolate usually insisted on doing for him. She ended up _over_doing it most of the time, Otterkit remembered with a smothered purr as he groomed his ears carefully. Once he'd finished the ears, he smoothed down his chest fur with a few quick swipes of his tongue, then looked up.

Molewhisker had finished grooming, and so had Grace. Otterkit noticed that the fur of the latter was still rather scraggly and flyaway, and with some difficulty managed to bite back a joking comment of some sort. Bossy furball or not, he didn't want to get on the wrong side of Grace if he could help it - who knew if those Clan cats would like him? They might hate him, and he'd be alone without anybody besides, well, Grace.

"What'll we eat?" said she-cat was asking eagerly. "Can you teach us how to hunt? Please?"

"That'll be your mentor's job," Molewhisker said, stretching and flexing his claws against the damp inside of the hollow tree. "I'll go fetch us some food, and then we'll eat and be on our way." As he spoke, he shook himself thoroughly and grunted as his head bumped against the tree, then turned towards the entryway through which watery rays of golden dawn light were tentatively reaching. The tom started to step out of the log, then froze. For a long moment he didn't move at all - then he turned his head, eyes shining softly, and mewed quietly, "Come here. Something you might want to see..."

Eagerly, Otterkit and Grace stepped forward. Grace beat Otterkit to Molewhisker's side, treading on his paws in the process - she muttered a half-hearted "Sorry" as she stared out of the log towards something Otterkit could not see, her gaze full of rapt admiration.

Otterkit himself finally managed to clamber into a space where his vision was not obscured by Grace's fluffy head and flicking ears or Molewhisker's spacious fur, and he peered out of the opening excitedly, stretching his eyes wide as if doing so would help him to see whatever it was faster. It was hardly a heartbeat before Otterkit saw them, though; they were almost directly outside the hollow tree, calmly browsing through the undergrowth, ears flicking slowly, short tails wagging gently. They were huge, almost as tall as Twolegs, and their pelts were a dusky brown. Their legs were long and graceful, their heads elongated, their necks slender. Huge soft brown eyes - so dark in hue that they were almost black - blinked in their faces. An early spring mist lay damp and cool on the ground; as of now it was still visible, and it whispered its way around the strange creatures, flowing slowly on its journey to invisibility and anonymity.

"What _are _they?" exclaimed Otterkit, carefully lowering his voice and glancing to his right at Molewhisker's furry side, which obstructed his view of said tom's face and the kit on the other side of the rather expansive warrior.

He could almost hear Grace's twitching whiskers as she replied, "They're _deer_! What, did they never come to your yard? I mean..." That singular, slightly annoying _I'm-thinking_ tone of hers began to creep into her voice. "I mean, I do live quite a bit closer to the forest than you - and perhaps you had to stay inside at night, or you just wanted to...or maybe your neighbors had really delicious grass or something and so they never made it to your yard."

Otterkit blinked slowly. "Right. Okay," he mumbled in response, not sure what else to say - and then, inevitably, a question came to mind. "Hey, M-Molewhisker?" he mewed tentatively, berating himself inwardly as he stumbled over the long warrior name. "Are they dangerous?"

"No, not at all." The great tom's head slowly swiveled around and Molewhisker looked at Otterkit, large amber eyes sparkling with a touch of humor. "Not unless you severely provoke one of them, in which case it might come back at you with its feet, but I don't think that's ever happened before. As long as we don't bother them, they tend to ignore us."

"They're so pretty," Grace said dreamily from the opposite side of Molewhisker. "I like mus-te-lids better, though. Like weasels - and otters too, I suppose - "

"What's a muss da lids?" Otterkit interrupted, chagrined at the use of such an odd phrase.

"Just one word," Grace's voice shot back at him. "Mustelid. It's what Twolegs call an animal that's fluffy and slinky and has sparkly eyes. I heard it on the nature channel on TV one day."

_You're weird,_ Otterkit told her mentally, but didn't say it aloud. That would be stupid. Instead he just grunted noncommittally and stretched, digging his claws into the soft, partially-rotted amber wood inside the log and blinking as the pale sunlight streaming into their sleeping place shone directly into his eyes for the first time. It was not yet quite so brilliant as to be painful, but still bright enough to cause him to need to blink and turn away his head for a moment. When he gazed back into the clearing, several of the grazing deer had lifted their heads and were moving sedately and smoothly away deeper into the misty forest, seeming almost to glide above the ground, so fluid was their movement.

Time passed by, and the dawn light strengthened before Otterkit's very eyes as the remainders of the deer continued to feed. Every once in a while Molewhisker would shift slightly in his place, and a bit more often Otterkit would hear the crackling of the moss as Grace readjusted herself, but no cat spoke or rose from their place in the hollow log, so absorbed were they in the graceful spectacle before them.

The deer vanished with the ebbing shades of night and the diminishing shreds of mist, fading one by one into the cool darkness of the woods. When the last small doe's tail flashed white in the shadows and then vanished, Molewhisker yawned and rolled over onto his back, head and forepaws dangling rather ungracefully out of their resting place as he rubbed his back against the rough, ragged bark surrounding the entry into the fallen tree. Without speaking, he slithered out of the dead log, climbing to his feet slowly in the clearing. Then at last he turned back to Grace and Otterkit.

"You two stay put," he instructed, squinting in the new sunlight that had begun to illuminate the clearing in which their log rested. "Feel free to hop out of the tree and explore this clearing if you like, but don't go into the trees. Nothing should hurt you - there wasn't any sort of dangerous scent around here last night. Doesn't seem as if any foxes pass through here, and no badger sets're nearby either. Just don't want you getting lost." With that, the long-furred brown and cream tom turned away and padded out of the clearing nonchalantly, without a backward glance.

Otterkit was excited to be alone in such an interesting new place with another kit, even if it _was_ this Grace cat. "Let's get out and explore!" he meowed, poking his head out of the hole in the tree and peering down at the clearing, which looked to be only about a tail-length or two below them. "It looks like there are plants - and tall grass - " His eyes caught a place on the very edge of the grassy area which was surrounded by tall dark green reeds. "Hey, I think that's a little pond or puddle or something! C'mon, let's go!" Whiskers trembling in excitement, ears pricked, he turned to Grace, waiting for her inevitable assent.

Surprisingly - or perhaps not surprisingly, seeing who he was speaking to - Grace looked less than enthusiastic, her ears drooping slightly. Her short white whiskers didn't move, and her dark amber eyes were narrowed. "I don't think that's such a good idea," she said, sheathing and unsheathing her claws as she spoke.

The small gray kit tried the same thing, sinking his small white claws into the wood and tugging them back out. It felt better than he'd guessed it would, and so as he replied to the little scruffy tabby, he continued to knead the rotten bark slowly. "Why? Molewhisker said that there weren't any badgers or foxes."

"He said he didn't _smell_ any." Grace's voice was now taking on a know-it-all tone, and she lifted her head as she spoke. "But what if - just what if - a fox or a badger or even a rogue cat decided to come this way? What if - "

"Rogue cat?" Otterkit interrupted. He had a pretty good guess what it was this time, but he didn't know for sure. And hey, if it would get Grace to stop talking, if only for a minute...

"A hostile cat that doesn't belong to a Clan," she told him instantly, eyes sparkling proudly at her ability to answer the question.

Rather aggravated at this proud sparkle, Otterkit asked, "Anything else you know that I don't?"

He wasn't sure if he'd meant to make it sound as rude as it came out, and he wasn't sure if Grace caught the rudeness. She probably hadn't, as she seemed to take his question seriously, gazing pensively off into the distance, brown eyes misted with thought. "Probably," she mused. "But...I can't think of anything specific you need to know..."

Otterkit suddenly remembered why this discussion had started in the first place. "Okay, you can think about it while we go look at that pond thing, right?"

"No." She surfaced from her thoughts and glared at him, flicking her ears contrarily. "I'm staying here. You can get out if you want, and go look at that. I'll just wait for Molewhisker."

"Fine!" he snapped, tail twitching as he flattened his ears in annoyance.

"Fine," she said coolly.

Shooting a quick scowl in her direction, Otterkit crouched and pounced out of the tree. His leap was fairly smooth, but his landing wasn't - he crashed into the ground hard, belly first, as far as he could tell. It took the wind out of him, and for a moment he lay there in the dust, staring up through the thick long grass at the pale blue sky and breathing deeply and slowly. Then, ignoring his aching ribs, the young tom rolled to his feet and shook out his pelt, reaching his right forepaw up and across his chest to swipe the skeleton skin of a long-since molted cicada out of his shoulder fur. This tidying up done, he set out across the clearing towards the reedy place.

The suspected pond was quite a bit harder to see from the ground because of the tall grass, and Otterkit allowed himself more than a few glances back towards the hollow tree in which they'd sheltered the night before, just to make sure that he wasn't getting lost. It always looked closer than he expected it to, especially given the fact that it really wasn't that big. _My legs are just short, I guess,_ the small silvery tabby admitted to himself ruefully.

Finally he made it to where the smooth, dark reeds loomed in the faint morning shadows of the trees. Eagerly, Otterkit pushed through the slick plants - he didn't like large areas of standing water, but the fun was in the discovery. In any case, the reed-encompassed place hadn't seemed too large from the trees. The dark gray kitten reminded himself of this as he pressed on - and then quite suddenly he found himself standing on the edge of something rather disappointing.

_Pond _was far too large a word for it, and _puddle_ was too wet of one. _Mud pit_ gave it an aspect of rather too much sloppiness, and also a touch more grandeur than it deserved. Honestly, what Otterkit was staring at was what had used to be a very small pond and had from there shrunk into a puddle, which had, once it had given up all hope of ever acquiring enough water to reach pond-dom again, seemed to have accepted the status of mud pit. Said mud pit had lost just enough moisture to lose its honorary title as well, and now all that was left where once a pond had been was a small hollow of damp, packed earth - and quite a few small pawprints around the edges as well.

Otterkit noticed these pawprints even before his disappointment over the lack of a pond had had a chance to really sink in. Without giving the damp hollow in the ground a second thought, he trotted over to examine the small, delicate pawmarks imprinted into the firm, crusty earth that might have once been the banks of a pond barely bigger around than a curled-up Molewhisker.

They were too small to be a grown cat's, and Otterkit had a feeling that kits would only have been out here with older cats, which Molewhisker hadn't mentioned scenting. Perhaps they were a fox's? Otterkit wasn't exactly sure how large a fox was, and he had only a vague idea of its appearance - another question for Molewhisker or Grace, preferably the former. They might have been a baby fox's, or maybe a - what had Grace called them? - a _mustelid_'s. A weasel or ferret or something.

Suddenly making a decision to abandon the mystery of the pawprints at least for the moment, Otterkit hopped down into the little dip in the ground that had been a pond once, and shuffled his paws in the cool damp dirt, revelling in the sensation. At Cody's house, he'd loved to go outside in the mornings after the sprinklers went on. He would work his paws under the dirt, much like he was doing now. He'd roll around in it and rub his face against it - _mmm, good dirt_ - and suddenly Otterkit was ecstatically rolling all around in the pond, nudging the dirt, digging his claws into it -

"Otterkit? Otterkit!" It was Molewhisker's voice.

Otterkit sat up suddenly, his ear twitching furiously in an attempt to remove a clump of dirt from it. This action being unsuccessful, he shook his head from side to side, then - just for good measure - shook the rest of himself from side to side as best he could.

"Otterkit, Molewhisker's back!" This time Grace was yowling.

_I know that,_ he informed her silently as he scrambled out of the little indentation and bounded towards the fallen tree, which was just barely visible from where he was at the moment.

When he reached the tree, Molewhisker and Grace were waiting for him outside on the ground. Between them lay a large red-furred squirrel. Otterkit winced - he still hadn't gotten all the way used to the idea of eating animals - but almost as soon as he set his eyes on the prey his stomach rumbled, reminding him that it was late morning and he hadn't eaten since last night.

"Come on, Otterkit, join us," Molewhisker invited, sinking into a crouch next to the squirrel. Grace copied him, and Otterkit padded forward to sit by Molewhisker, glancing down at the food a bit apprehensibly, but hungrily.

The big cream-and-brown warrior took the first bite of the squirrel and then pushed it towards Grace. Swallowing, he asked Otterkit, "So, did you find anything interesting out there?"

"Yeah, sort of." Otterkit stood up and stretched his neck slightly to take a tentative bite of meat. He chewed it slowly. Finding that he enjoyed its taste, the silver-gray tom gulped it down. "I found this place that used to be a pond," he explained to Molewhisker, swiping his tongue around his teeth. "But it didn't have any water in it."

"Any mud? Any animals living near it?" Molewhisker asked interestedly, taking another bite of squirrel.

"No. It was just dirt." Otterkit remembered the pawprints and his fox theory. "How big are foxes?" he inquired.

"Some are about my size; most are a bit bigger. There are a few smaller ones, but they're generally youngsters." The long-furred tom blinked slowly. "Why do you ask?"

"There were some pawprints around the edge of the hollow. I guessed that they couldn't be cats'," Otterkit mewed, darting a glance at Grace as he spoke proudly, "because they were kit-sized, and kits wouldn't be out here without adults, and if they had been here with their family there would still be scent around. Right?"

"Right. They're most likely young foxes' prints," agreed Molewhisker. "Long gone by now, I think."

Otterkit took a large bite of the squirrel, spitting out a few fine furs. "Wegs odd be gudda weeb fodunda an?" he asked through his mouthful.

"Say that again?" Grace chirped, brow wrinkling.

The small tom kit's eyes narrowed as he swallowed. "I said, when are we going to leave for the Th - for ThunderClan?"

"It's not _the ThunderClan_," the spotted tabby she-cat muttered to him out of the side of her mouth as Molewhisker replied.

"As soon as we finish eating," he mewed, and glanced down at the remains of the squirrel. "Shouldn't be long until then, actually. We should be able to get to the top of that hill right there - " he pointed with his tail in a direction vaguely opposite that of where the sun had risen, to a green, wooded ridge that didn't appear to be very far away at all " - before sunhigh, and there's something up there that I think you'd both like to see. Then it won't take us long to make it down into ThunderClan territory, not long at all." The cream-and-brown tom leaned forward and took a bite of squirrel.

Otterkit followed suit, and so did Grace. The three cats finished their meal in silence, besides the occasional crunch or the chirrup of a bird in the trees. When the last bit of meat had been swallowed, Molewhisker stretched and stood up slowly. Grace bounced to her feet as he did so, and Otterkit, deciding to get up in a less conventional way, flopped onto his side and rolled into a crouch, from which position he stood up.

"Right, then." Molewhisker took a deep breath and faced the hill, whiskers twitching slightly. "I can tell you both right now that you'll be needing me to carry you by the time we're halfway up that hill - probably before. I don't mind much; what matters is that you tell me as soon as your feet start aching. The last thing I need is to have to explain to Lionstar why I let his two newest apprentices tumble off the side of a mountain." His eyes twinkled as he looked down at Grace and Otterkit.

The merrily twinkling eyes were what really got to Otterkit - they were just so _twinkly_! - and he stifled a purr, noticing with some satisfaction that Grace's whiskers were a-tremble and she was darting an amused glance at Molewhisker. She seemed to at least have a heart, which was good.

And so the three cats set out, leaving behind their one-time camp in favor of a larger and more permanent resting place, striking off up the hill with the breath of the morning air in their lungs and the fire of the feeling of homecoming in their hearts. They trekked on up the slope at a steady pace for a good time, as the sun rose higher and the temperature grew warmer. Despite what Molewhisker had said to them, neither kit wished to give in and own up to weariness before the other, and so both continued to stalwartly pad up the ridge, every once in a while shooting covert looks at each other, daring the other to cave and ask Molewhisker to pick them up.

In the end it was Grace who mewed, "Molewhisker, would you - " and just as he'd been there for Otterkit the night before, he swooped down on her and lifted her carefully by her scruff before she'd finished the sentence, padding calmly up the steep hill. The big cream-and-brown tom seemed to know how exhausted Otterkit was becoming, too; he only carried Grace for a short while before setting her down and turning back to pick up Otterkit instead. He eventually put Otterkit down again and carried Grace once more, continuing to alternate every once in a while. In this manner, they reached the top of the ridge before the sun had reached its zenith - but only just.

At first Otterkit didn't know why they'd stopped or why Molewhisker had set him down and vanished into the trees, but then the big warrior's mew rang out through the surprisingly quiet forest. "Come on, then! You don't want to miss this!"

Grace once more beat Otterkit to the spectacle, racing ahead of him towards the voice, seeming not to care that she'd almost run over one of her traveling companions. She bounded through a thick bush a few tail-lengths ahead of him, and almost immediately her voice rose in a surprised and delighted "Whooooa! Awesome!"

"Wait for me!" yelped Otterkit, and hurled himself through the green, prickly bush as well, crossly shaking the leaves out of his eyes as he pressed on through towards the bits of sky and ground that he could glimpse through the dense shrub, and then suddenly he was tumbling out onto a flat, hard something, and somebody's paw was pressed against his back, and there were no more trees, just sky...

Otterkit blinked and scrambled to his feet as Molewhisker removed his paw, purring, "Be a bit more careful up here, alright?"

The gray tabby cat hardly heard the older warrior as he padded along the great slab of rock that he'd arrived on, moving to stand by Grace on the very edge of the hilltop itself, it seemed.

Below them, the ground fell away rapidly in what was so steep, it could almost be called a cliff. Straggling trees were spotted across the hillside, thickening into a dense forest where the ground seemed to level out, sloping more gradually down towards what had to be the most water Otterkit had ever seen in his life.

It still looked small from where they stood - if Otterkit had held up his paw in front of his face it would have obscured the pool of flashing, shining liquid almost completely - but the kit could tell that it had to be immense. Around the lake were forests, and what looked like something made by Twolegs, and a great expanse of what seemed to be rolling green hills, and the bright new sun shone down on it all, and Otterkit was so overwhelmed that he stepped back and sat down hard. "What's _that_?" he exclaimed breathlessly, gesturing helplessly with his paw. "What is it?"

Molewhisker was chuckling, but his honey-colored eyes glowed with a loving light as he gazed out at the great land spread out beneath them. "That's my home," he said. Then, slowly, he turned his head to look at Otterkit and Grace, who had also stepped away, back towards Molewhisker. "That's your home."

Otterkit didn't know what to say. He felt strangely overcome by a multitude of emotions - excitement, first and foremost, but he also felt nervous. There was a deep longing of some sort inside of him as well, and a deep fear too.

For once, Grace seemed to have the right words for the situation. She blinked and stared up at the cream-and-brown tom, her dark eyes shining. "Let's go home," she said quietly.

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><p><strong>Bahh. This chapter feels...incomplete. Eh, bonus for those of you who like the short chapters. I suppose the reason for the length is (a) my tiredness and (b) atWL took quite a bit out of me and (c) stupid SandClan universe is impeding my imagination...and I wanted to publish something, that last one is the main reason, actually. xD<strong>

**Next chapter will be way more interesting. Very very interesting. Muy muy interesante... *yawn***

**...I'm very tired and my neck aches.**

**Tata. The second half of this chapter/next chapter will be up ASAP.**

**Read atWL. Haha.**

**:)**


	7. Chapter 6: Otterkit of Twolegplace

**Sooo. Ever made up a fantastic language? I'm trying to get my fantasy series' universe and outline all in order in time for NaNoWriMo, which I want to participate in this year, and it's HARD. At least I've got basic Erinean grammar written out without a hitch. I think. And I've got a bunch of characters described, but I still need to record epithets and adjectives for all of them. And I drew a map, but it's probably not to scale, and I need to study how large my capital cities can realistically be, and I need to record myths and theology and ceremonies for THREE countries, and as much of that before November as I can. Fun fun. DDD8 But I don't think it'll detract from the time I use to work on ANF; my policy is: original fic during the day, fanfic one or two hours a night. And now you know why it takes so long for me to get chapters out. xD**

**I did something stupid but fun last night. ;D Have any of you ever started reading something and then it was so good that you couldn't put it down? The only time that that happened to me (before last night) was with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which kept me up until 2 the first time I read it (sadly, not the night or even the year of its release, though I _was_ perfectly literate and capable of reading it then). Well, last night around midnight, I was browsing around a very good fanfic author's profile On This Very Site and decided to read one of her longer stories. Suffice it to say that I didn't realize how long it was until I'd already started it, and that once I'd started it I couldn't stop. The point is that I was up until 3 in the morning reading a 140k-word fanfiction. And then as per usual arose from slumber at 6 and departed my lovely abode at 7:30. Surprisingly, my lack of sleep didn't catch up to me until the afternoon... So yeah, little story about my life that you may or may not be able to relate to, heh heh. If you CAN relate to it, you should tell me what you were reading, because if it was that good, I want to read it too, hands down. Unless said literary material was Twilight, Eragon, or MRide, because - eh - different strokes.**

**Back to less strangely deviant AN topics...**

**Here it is: this chapter, the big one, the one you've all been waiting for... lol. Well, it _is_ pretty important, I suppose. Will Otterkit and Grace successfully reach ThunderClan? Who, if any, will like them, and who, if any, won't? Have I been forcibly restraining myself from writing "Otterpaw" and "Gracepaw" throughout the past few chapters? Can I deal with all of these character introductions without getting repetitive? Why does Molewhisker's voice in my head keep reminding me of a deeper version of Bob Ross? LET'S FIND OUT.**

**But first, review responses! :-)**

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><p><strong>Bookish Owl: <strong>Glad you liked it. ^-^ I see you noticed the first pairing ever to make an appearance in this fic: Otterkit x Dirt. It's the new Jay x Stick! Teehee, I stole that behavior from my own cat, actually. She loves to roll around in dust and dirt and various other earthly materials that are upon the ground...ugh, I shouldn't have let myself think of that last one, now I'm suspicious of snuggling with my own kitty. x'D Whenever I write a chapter without much plot movement, I try to put in plenty of dialogue/characterization so nobody gets bored reading it. And apparently Ottereh and Gracey's characters are coming across just as I'm intending them to! Creekpaw, yes, I suppose he is rather confounding. He's many things. And speaking of confounding, that man purse response to the stalker face was rather confounding. ;3

**dragonFELL:** I had so much fun writing about the pond. You see, I was tired and rather upset that I wasn't getting in as much description of the clearing as I wanted to (I have a chapterly adjective quota to meet! It's over 9000! xD jk ) so I just stared at that pesky not-a-pond in my mind and informed it that I was going to describe it with many sentences full of thinly veiled resentment, or some such emotion. And everyone meets some of everyone else in this chapter, I promise! You don't need to hurry and read atWL, sooo don't feel as if you have to or anything. I would love your feedback when you _can_ sit down and R&R it, though. :-)

**Scarheart:** I love Molewhisker. I didn't have a very detailed idea of his character when I started ANF (I didn't have a detailed idea of anyone's character when I started ANF, with the sort-of exception of Grace), but he's really growing into his own characterization, as my characters tend to like to do. He's just this fluffy old loyal warrior kitty...aww, I sometimes want to just pick 'im up and hug 'im. I also like the way he interacts with Olivefall; their characters just seem to have awesome conversations involuntarily. Yes, Grace and Otterkit are quite alike in a not-alike sort of way. I didn't really do that intentionally either, though I do have plans for their future relationships with each other. As for getting along at The ThunderClan, weeeell... I have to say that honestly, if Otterkit can find a friend more to his liking, he won't covet extra time with Grace. We all sympathize with her more because we know she's really unsure on the inside, but looking at her from Otterkit's - or really anyone else's - eyes, she really is rather obnoxious. xD Bad social skills, the poor girl. Not that Otterkit's are very much better. Yes, like I said in my response to Bookish Owl - that dirt scene is (c) to Lily, my little old lady cat. Except she prefers dust to damp dirt, and said preference ends up causing her poor borderline-asthmatic owner to sneeze uncontrollably. And in regards to the kitties in my ginormous oneshot making up for lack of a timely ANF update? Yes, well, YOU'D BETTER **HOPE** THEY MADE UP FOR IT BECAUSE DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG THAT ONESHOT TO- lol, just kidding. I'm glad you feel that way. And thank you, thank you, thank you for *shiver* awarding me that place! I'm sure I didn't deserve it, but thank you a million times, in any case. 83

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><p><span>Chapter 6 :: Otterkit of Twolegplace<span>

_Our home,_ Otterkit reflected as he picked his way carefully down the slope, which was considerably steeper on this side of the hill than on the other. _Is that _really_ where we're going?_ He darted an anxious glance at Grace from the corners of his eyes, wondering almost resentfully how she could be so calm at a time like this. _It's just a camp, with a lot of cats we don't know in it. Are we supposed to find home there? Don't you need a family to have a home? Or at least cats that love you?_ The small gray kit's fur prickled along his shoulders as he carefully balanced on a protruding stone and pounced to a grassy hillock about a tail-length down the hill. _How do we know that anybody will like us there? Especially her - how does she know they won't hate her? Her parents didn't ever know anyone in the Clans, so nobody will say that she looks like her mother, or that she has her father's pelt, or anything they might say to me or notice me for. _He scurried across a particularly slippery bit of the slope, tail fluffed up and claws extended in order to keep himself from tumbling downhill. _Home. I hope so, but...it's not very likely._

Even with these sentiments, Otterkit couldn't pretend that he hadn't felt something move deep within his heart when he'd looked out at the great lake from the hilltop, its water flashing with bits and pieces of reflected light, reminding him of the time Cody had dropped and consequently shattered a small mirror. He wasn't sure what exactly it had been, but he wanted to believe that the feeling had been trying to tell him that he belonged, that that strange and seemingly faraway place actually was his home, that it was the place to where he would always return, where resided cats who loved him and cared about him and wanted him to be with them.

Not for the first time, Molewhisker's voice interrupted his thoughts. "Anyways, we're going down this hill now," he told them. "There are a few little hills we'll have to cross - we'll be cutting right by the corner of the WindClan border, maybe get to talk to some of them if they're patrolling - and then we'll be on the edge of ThunderClan territory. The other hills won't be nearly as woodsy as these, no, they just have a few little clumps of trees apiece, and they aren't nearly as steep. It's just about sunhigh now - we should reach the ThunderClan camp a while before sunset. You'll have enough time to explore camp, but I don't know about training or looking around the territory."

"That's alright," Grace mewed, picking her way carefully down the slope in Otterkit's wake. "We'll have plenty of time to get used to it, after all."

Thinking that he might've heard a slight catch in her voice for a moment, Otterkit turned his head sharply and glanced at the brown tabby she-cat, but she, with her head held low and ears pricked in concentration, didn't look a bit different. He decided that he'd imagined hearing the strange tone. "What'll happen when we get to the camp?" he queried.

"Well, everyone'll want to meet you, of course," Molewhisker mused, tail twitching busily as he navigated through a particularly rocky part of the hill. Turning, he waited for Otterkit and Grace as he continued to speak. "Then of course, Lionstar will perform the apprenticeship ceremony - I wonder who'll be your mentors. Maybe Lionstar'll pick Amberpelt for one of you; he's a pretty good cat, and he's only very recently a warrior. Hasn't had an apprentice yet. I could see him getting on well with you, Grace, as a matter of fact." The warrior paused and blinked calmly as he observed the two kits' progression through the complicated patch of terrain.

Otterkit slithered through the treacherous stones, sucking in his sides and holding his breath as he squeezed through a final passage to stand beside the tall, reassuringly fluffy legs of the brown-and-cream tom. Grace had chosen to climb over the big rocks, and a moment later she appeared, first the furry tips of her ears and then the rest of her head making themselves visible at the top of a particularly well-creviced white boulder. Her groping paws, claws extended to their full length so that even their pale sheathes were visible, pulled the rest of the kit up onto the rock. For a moment she balanced there proudly, silhouetted against the pale blue sky; then Grace teetered, her balance faltered, and she beat a hurried, scramblingly disgruntled retreat down the side of the pock-marked stone.

"Careful there," advised their good-humored guide as Grace shook out her pelt and twitched the dust out of her whiskers. "Where was I, again?"

The silvery dark gray tom squinted hard as he tried to recall. "You were talking about - um - I think you were saying that Amb - "

"You were saying that Lionstar might pick Amberpelt to mentor me, since he hasn't had an apprentice yet and he's a good warrior," the little tabby she-kit said, and Otterkit glared at her. She caught the look, blinked in what looked almost like shock, then almost instantly sent a scowl back at him.

"Indeed I was, indeed I was," murmured Molewhisker, resuming his meanderingly skillful journey down the steep hill. "Then there's - hmm, not Olivefall, she's got an apprentice, we have quite a few apprentices - but there's Wolfpelt, of course, and Sharpfang, one of our senior warriors, who mentored Amberpelt. Lionstar himself is available too, I believe. He takes apprentices more often than most leaders do...let's see..." The long-furred tom's ears flicked as he thought. "Yes, I was his second apprentice...Dovewing, you two know who she was, she was his first. Then there was Olivefall, right after me. And moons after Olivefall became a warrior, he mentored Flamestreak, and Wolfpelt directly after him. So yes, Lionstar's a possibility..." The tom trailed off into mumbling, and for a while, as the three cats reached the bottom of the steepest hill and began to trek up the next one, nothing was said.

Finally Grace broke the silence. "Excuse me," she meowed clearly, as the group approached the summit of this more gently sloping formation.

"Hmm? Oh - yes, yes, right. Go on," Molewhisker told her.

"How are Clan relations right now? Olivefall told me about the idea of integrated training, but you can't get along all the time, can you, and as we're passing by WindClan - "

"Nervous?" asked the big tom genially, and Otterkit suppressed a chuckle at the contrite look that stamped itself upon Grace's face at his words. "Don't be. We're all at peace here. ShadowClan get very snippy if you go on their territory without reason, but unless you've established a reputation for troublemaking, young Snakestar's likely to let you go with all of your vital parts; he _will_ give you quite a tongue-lashing if I'm not mistaken, though. WindClan's leader, Puffstar, is just lovely, now. She's understanding, kind, gets along well with just about everyone...apprentices like her, they like her quite a bit. Her deputy Leafpath is a fair cat too. RiverClan are having, mmm, a bit of a quibble amongst themselves, if I heard rightly at the last Gathering, but I can't be sure. In any case, it's nothing that affects us, and they haven't done anything aggressive, so I wouldn't worry."

"What sort of a quib - a quarrel?" Grace inquired delicately, narrowing her eyes in concentration.

"Not sure," said Molewhisker airily. "It's not really our business, us being ThunderClan and it not affecting us in any way. We _are _still four separate Clans, even if we haven't retained all of our traditions from my kithood and before, particularly in the way of apprenticeships."

This was the first Otterkit had heard of anything like _that_. "What do you mean?" he exclaimed, ears swiveling towards the big warrior.

"You don't know about _integrated training?"_ Grace jumped into the conversation right as Molewhisker parted his jaws to reply. "Really?" She sounded absolutely scandalized, and she cast Otterkit a look that said the exact same thing that her voice did.

"Now, Grace," rumbled the brown-and-cream cat. "Otterkit isn't quite as inquisitive as you, and he was rather rushed out of his old place. Let's give him some time to get used to things, hmm? Anyways, Otterkit, what I mean is that, well, a long time ago - before the big battle with the Dark Forest - I actually remember telling you something about this last night, how, you remember, the medicine cats started taking mates? And cats had stronger bonds with other Clans? I do believe I said something about that..."

Otterkit tilted his head to one side, trying to remember. He'd been quite sleepy last night, but he'd tried to listen, and he did recall this bit. "Yeah, you said that, but what's intelligent training?"

"_Integrated_ training," Grace corrected him instantly in a superior tone, and Otterkit gritted his teeth.

"Right. _In-_te-grated training. What is that?"

Molewhisker paused, one paw in midair, as he turned to look at the kit. "Hmm, well, integrated training. How best to explain?" He raised his already-dangling forepaw and scratched his cheek absentmindedly. "Well, once you're apprenticed, for about a moon you'll be trained in basic ThunderClan hunting and battle skills, just the very basics. If you're up to par, sticking with your denmates in regards to skills and all, by the time you're seven moons you'll get to start doing integrated training a few times a moon. See, what happens during an integrated training day is that all of the apprentices in every Clan who're allowed to go and join up in one Clan's territory and have a bit of special training...the Clan leader's in charge of them." The warrior took a few long strides forward, then turned and added "Does that answer your question?"

"Well...I thought," Otterkit said tentatively, hurrying to keep up with the big cat, "that, um, the Clans had boundary fights and problems with that stuff. Why do you go on each others' land like that and teach each other about it?"

To Otterkit's annoyance, Molewhisker did not answer the question himself, instead mewing, "Would you like to tell him, Grace?"

Of course, the scruffy tabby kit was more than happy to oblige. She dropped back a few paces to pad beside Otterkit, the pitch of her voice grating against his ears as she explained condescendingly. "The Clans have integrated training just in case there's another event like the battle against the Dark Forest. In that battle, cats ended up separated from their Clanmates on other Clans' territories. Often they were trapped in one area, and had to survive there; other times they were fighting with a group of cats from another Clan and had to try and coordinate their battle moves with the other Clan's different ones. Integrated training doesn't really give away a lot of Clan secrets - you just learn some very basic specialized hunting and battle techniques. You don't even usually get to fully explore the territory." She gazed down her nose at Otterkit. "Understand?"

"I'm six moons old," said the dark gray kit, offended. "I can understand what you're telling me."

"Well, you don't need to be so rude about it!" Grace snapped, and darted ahead of him to walk next to Molewhisker, head held high.

Otterkit sighed, ears flattening. "_You_ don't need to be such a bossypaws know-it-all," he muttered, digging his claws into the ground for a moment before scurrying to keep up with the other two.

For a time, there was silence yet again. Once the shrill cry of a hawk shattered their peace, but the bird never appeared - whether it was soaring too high for them to see, or whether it wasn't even in their immediate vicinity at all, the three cats never found out. And so they trekked on until the sun had sunk perhaps just more than halfway towards the distant hilly horizon. The sky was shading to a very faint tint of lavender around the edges of the well-forested summits, but nothing else foretold the imminent sunset - not yet. It was at this time that Otterkit very suddenly arrived at the top of a small hillock and saw it stretching away to his right, up towards the great dark slopes: a forest of towering trees, tall and proud and dark, looking formidable yet strangely welcoming.

Molewhisker looked down at the two speechless kits fondly. "Well, how do you like it?" he prompted, lifting his furry eyebrows.

"Wow!" Otterkit half-whispered, eyes stretched wide. "It's so big!" It was all he could think of to say.

"Is that ThunderClan territory?" Grace chirped, her voice hushed but no less inquisitive.

"Yes, but it's the very farthest edges, right by our boundaries. We're just about to cross into WindClan territory at the bottom of this little hill. You might pick up their scent markers, or not. The Clans tend not to patrol these edges of the borders as frequently."

"Where'll we cross that stream?" the fluffy brown tabby she-kit inquired. Otterkit hadn't noticed the stream she was talking about at first, but now he saw a winding line of water, shining silvery-white like Cody's necklace, flowing right between them and the trees.

"There are stepping-stones around here somewhere, pretty close by too, if I'm not mistaken," the warrior replied, angling his ears towards the stream as he spoke. "I believe they're right about there, just above that very sharp bend in the stream."

"Oh, yes, I see those," Grace said, peering towards the little brook. Otterkit strained to see anything that looked remotely like stones, but he couldn't make anything out, and cast a suspicious glance at Grace. Could she _really _see the stepping-stones, or was she just making it up? It was on the tip of his tongue to inquire, but just as the words formed in the bottom of his throat, Molewhisker flicked his tail and set off down the little slope at a brisk pace. Swallowing the question, Otterkit trotted after Molewhisker, his short legs doing double-time to keep up with the huge tom.

Grace hustled after her two traveling companions, ears twitching, her fur fluffed up around her shoulders and neck. Every once in a while the tags on her crimson collar clinked against each other softly; but for that and the ongoing undertones of distant birdsong, all was quiet.

"D'you see those WindClan cats over there?" Molewhisker suddenly mewed, slowing his pace and pointing with his tail. Otterkit narrowed his eyes as he stared in the direction the warrior was indicating, and nodded eagerly when he spotted a few barely visible blurs moving about on the horizon.

"Are they going to come over here?" Grace exclaimed, sounding half-excited and half-nervous as she bounded ahead of Otterkit to pad next to the towering brown-and-cream cat.

Molewhisker considered this for a moment as he continued to trudge towards the stream, glancing back at the distant group of cats thoughtfully a few times. "Hmm...no, I don't believe they will. It looks like a hunting patrol." He sniffed the air, closing his eyes briefly as he inhaled. "Smells like someone may've killed a rabbit recently, though I'm not sure of that, no. It's probable, though."

"Will they be offended?" the little she-kit asked, tail twitching. "I mean, if we don't declare ourselves, and just go right through their territory."

"He said it was just the outskirts," Otterkit muttered to Grace's fluffy, flicking tail.

Molewhisker's pointed ears, just as proportionally big as the rest of him, swiveled in time to catch Otterkit's comment. "Otterkit's quite right, actually," he told Grace, who was now staring at Otterkit with a deeply resentful look imprinted on her face. "They oughtn't to be too perturbed - I think they'll realize, from our scents, that I was bringing back a few new ThunderClan apprentices from Twolegplace. That's happened before..." His voice trailed off for a few heartbeats and a deeply thoughtful look flitted over his swirled and streaked face. "Yes, a few seasons before your mother joined us, Otterkit, we took in a young house cat named Flicka. She was a lovely cat, and a great warrior, at that. Her warrior name was Flickerlight." A shade of sadness fell upon his visage as he added, "She was killed in a battle with BloodClan last greenleaf."

"So..." Otterkit began tentatively, glancing at Grace and Molewhisker as he continued, "so my, um, my mom came this way too...on her way to camp?" A small warmth started to spread outwards from his chest, thrumming gently under his pelt with the rhythm of his heart, as he felt that feeling of going to a place he could possibly belong return.

Molewhisker's next words crushed that feeling. "Hmm, well, no," he told Otterkit, resuming his long, steady steps towards the now not-so-distant stream. "No, we actually found her on the outskirts of our territory."

"But wasn't his mother a house cat?" Grace mewed. "What was she doing all the way out here? Is there a hou - a Twoleg nest nearby? Olivefall didn't mention it to me."

"She was rather vague about why she was in the territory, as I recall," Molewhisker said thoughtfully, "but she knew she wanted to join a Clan. She quite reminded me of you, Otterkit, and not in appearance only. Heartleap talked the same way you do - only, of course," he added, whiskers twitching, "a bit more often. Nothing wrong with being shy, of course, and she wasn't all that outgoing either. It's interesting."

They were silent for a good deal of the rest of the journey across WindClan territory and into ThunderClan territory. The crossing of the brook was quite anticlimactic, in Otterkit's opinion; he'd been expecting perhaps four or five small, unbalanced, moss-slick stones to have to stumble and leap across. Instead, there were seven or eight large, secure, dry white rocks that were painfully simple to step onto from each one's preceding stone.

The journey through the actual territory was a bit more interesting, the air alive with various scents and sounds that Otterkit had been tuning out the entire way there, but was now keenly aware of for some reason. He was intrigued by everything - the bright flash of a robin's red breast as it dashed away through the trees on some errand of extreme importance, the whisper of a breeze touching sunny green new leaves, the vibrant scent of a particularly pungent spiky plant (Grace said it was called rosemary), the elusive ticklings in his fur created by twigs and leaves and bugs and errant winds. Not even the crackling of last year's dead leaves under his paws escaped Otterkit's notice. As the dark gray tomkit carefully examined a bumbling yellow bee making her way meticulously around a purple-flowering plant, golden pollen clinging in great clumps to her hind legs, he had the vague yet welcome thought that he _loved_ this place.

Perhaps he could even call it home one day.

The bumblebee chose Otterkit's moment of revelation for her moment of departure from the flowers, and her rude path of exit happened to coincide with the location of Otterkit's nose. She bumped right against it, the poor busy thing, and buzzed in righteous anger at this obstacle which had not been there moments ago. Otterkit blinked, eyes crossing as he stared at the bee for barely a heartbeat before yelping and cannoning backwards. As the bee continued contentedly on her way, Molewhisker chuckled and provided a steady foreleg to aid Otterkit in climbing back to his feet from where he'd sprawled in a quite undignified position.

"Don't you use honey for things?" Grace asked eagerly, her eyes tracing the fat little insect's path through the forest as far as they could see. "Maybe we should track it and bring some back for the medicine cat."

"Easier said than done," Molewhisker told her kindly, patting her bushy headfur with one great cream paw. "Also, Grace, that's a bumblebee. I believe - now, you'd really have to ask our medicine cat about this - but I do think that you need honeybees to get honey from."

"Oh." The scruffy tabby looked downcast for barely a moment before she brightened again. "Why can't you use bumblebee honey?"

"Another question for Smokewisp," said the big warrior, delegating the question to someone whose name Otterkit did not recognize.

"Who's Smokewisp?" he inquired of Molewhisker, expecting Grace to answer. She did, of course.

"She's the medicine cat," chirped the tabby. "She heals sick cats."

"I know what a medicine cat is. You told me last night," Otterkit reminded her. "Don't they, like, talk to the ghosts too?"

Molewhisker chuckled. "They speak to the spirits of our warrior ancestors, Otterkit - StarClan."

"Oh. Right." Otterkit's whiskers trembled as he ducked his head in embarrassment.

For a moment there was a taut silence, the sort that trembles in the air during a customary pause in conversation, waiting for someone to pick up the dialogue anew. This silence was never picked up by one of the conversing cats, though, for just at that moment there was a wild crackling of bracken and leaves and a few joyful shouts, and someone came racing around the side of a large gray-barked tree, followed closely by another cat. At first, Otterkit only had time to register the fact that both cats possessed copious amounts of fire-hued fur, but as they skidded to a halt just whisker-lengths in front of Molewhisker, he was able to observe them more closely.

Both of the cats were females, and that was as far as any real resemblance went. The she-cat who had led the wild dash towards them was far larger than the cat who'd been chasing her - she was tall and slim with long legs and a long tail that lashed absentmindedly behind her as she blinked thoughtfully at the sight of the three travelers. Her pelt was silky and smooth, its soft white color seeming to radiate a soft glow in the crisscross afternoon shadows of the deep forest. The one part of her that was not white was her restless tail, which was sun-golden with a whisper of red, striped with darker ginger.

In contrast, the other cat seemed to be barely more than a baby. She was shorter than both Otterkit and Grace, though not by much. Her legs were average length, and she was rather stocky in build. Her cheeks were still fuzzy with kitten-soft fur. The young she-cat's short cream whiskers bristled in excitement as she stared at Otterkit and Grace, eyes wide, and she bounced from dark ginger paw to dark ginger paw in what looked like an attempt to suppress her exhilaration. The attempt seemed to at least partially fail; the ginger tabby's cheeks bulged out for a moment, as though she were trying to hold back her words, and then she burst out: "Who's that, Molewhisker?"

Molewhisker's whiskers twitched. "Not even a hello to poor old achy Molewhisker, is that how it is, Gingerpaw?"

"Aw, you don't _really_ care," the little cat assured him blithely, continuing to scrutinize Otterkit and Grace with wide, pale amber eyes like tiny suns. "What's you guys' names?"

Otterkit darted a glance at Grace and saw that she was examining this 'Gingerpaw' with as much care as the other young cat was looking at her. "Um...Otterkit," he said, very quietly.

"Say what?" chirped the dark ginger she-cat, leaning towards him and swiveling one ear in his direction as she goggled at him shamelessly.

Otterkit took a hurried step back, then stepped forward again almost as quickly, unsure what to do, and quite unsettled by the forwardness of this cat. "Um...I don't know..." As the Clan kit narrowed her eyes slightly in confusion, he blundered on, "I mean...I said... I'm Ott - "

"I'm Grace," Grace butted in coolly and calmly, and Otterkit envied her for her precision of speech. "I'm a house cat. Your name's Gingerpaw, right?" All of this was said disinterestedly, yet somehow politely and extrovertedly enough for Gingerpaw's curious eyes to take on an even more friendly glow as she looked back at the scruffy brown tabby.

"Yeah, that's me," said the young she-cat. "Has Molewhisker been telling you about all the awesome stuff I do?"

"He told them about the heinous theft of the fresh-kill," interjected Molewhisker, flicking Gingerpaw amiably with his brown-and-cream-spattered tail. "Has Swiftflame - " he nodded to the older cat " - given you a proper punishment for that yet?" His tone was warm and light, and implied that he didn't believe Swiftflame _had_ given Gingerpaw a proper punishment at all.

"Oh, yes, punishment most gruesome," the cat he'd indicated to be Swiftflame purred in reply, gazing down at her apprentice fondly. "Poor Gingerpaw has to collect the camp's moss all by herself until the half moon."

"That means that she helps me," Gingerpaw whispered loudly to nobody in particular, and Swiftflame swatted her apprentice's mouth playfully with her golden tail.

"Shh, Gingerpaw, we can't tell that to a _senior warrior_!" she exclaimed, looking scandalized.

"He won't tell anybody, don't worry," said Gingerpaw surely, as her gaze drifted off of Grace and focused on Otterkit again. "Hey you - you gray kit - hey, you look like Wolfpelt!" She paused and looked at Otterkit expectantly, as if waiting for him to say something, then laughed suddenly. "Oh yeah, you don't know who that is, right? Well, what did you say your name was again, kit?"

"I'm probably your age," Otterkit objected, instead of answering her question.

"Whatever." Gingerpaw purred and poked him in the chest. Otterkit almost leaped backward, but caught himself in time - instead, he just stood awkwardly, practically frozen in place as the apprentice continued. "It's just a thing to call cats. Don't get a bee in your ear. Anyways, just tell me your name and I'll stop calling you kit."

"Uh...okay." Otterkit relaxed slightly, tail twitching. "I'm Otterkit."

Gingerpaw's reaction to this announcement was completely unprecedented: as soon as the words left his mouth she nearly collapsed on the ground, purring so furiously that Otterkit thought she might catch her breath.

"What's tickled your tail now, Gingerpaw?" Molewhisker inquired calmly, looking for all the world as if this sort of furiously exuberant outburst was a normal occurence - though maybe it was for the ginger tabby she-cat, Otterkit reflected. From what he'd seen and heard of Gingerpaw, he wouldn't put that past her.

"But you _are_ a kit!" she squeaked through her purrs, ignoring Molewhisker completely and addressing Otterkit instead. "So I'm totally allowed to call you a kit!"

Otterkit stared blankly at her. _That's...not very funny,_ he commented mentally, though he refrained from saying it aloud. There was something in Gingerpaw's overflowing purrs that he didn't want to stop, something he'd never seen another cat experience in Cody's house, let alone experienced himself. It was a kind of happiness that was completely new to the silvery kit.

Suddenly Gingerpaw stopped laughing, very abruptly - Otterkit noticed that Grace looked rather relieved. Of course, the ginger she-cat _did_ come bouncing over to stick her nose in Otterkit's face again, but Otterkit thought vaguely that he might be already beginning to at least have the ability to tolerate that. "Did you say Otterkit?" the short-furred apprentice demanded, eyes wide and round as the full moon again.

Otterkit flinched away from the blast of her warm breath in his face, even though it didn't smell particularly bad. "Yeah," he mewed uncertainly, blinking.

"Do you mean _the_ Otterkit?" she asked solemnly.

Narrowing his eyes confusedly, Otterkit darted a glance at Molewhisker and Grace, who weren't even looking at him. Turning back to Gingerpaw, he mewed uncertainly, "I...I think so."

"Wow!" Gingerpaw purred giddily, and chased her tail in a circle quickly before turning back to Otterkit, eyes sparkling. "My mom told me all about you!" She snickered. "I've had a crush on you for, like, _ever._"

"...Okay..." Otterkit said nervously, surreptitiously edging away from the other cat and wondering how she expected him to take that information.

Gingerpaw was staring at him flatly now, one furry eyebrow raised. For a moment she let the awkward silence hang, then she informed him, "That last one was a lie."

Absolutely stumped, wondering how to respond to this new revelation, Otterkit simply stared at the dark ginger kitten.

"I like you," meowed Gingerpaw, stretching and kneading the ground with her paws. "You're funny. We need to hang out sometime. After I get the stupid moss into camp and, like, clear out the elders' stinky dirt and stuff."

"Gingerpaw," scolded Swiftflame good-humoredly, reaching out to swat her apprentice's behind with one white paw.

Gingerpaw dodged the playful cuff and pounced around her mentor, high-tailing it back in the direction from which she'd come. "See you guys tonight!" she howled over her shoulder as she shot around the side of the big tree. "Hopefully Jayfeather isn't hungry for kit meat!"

Otterkit flinched, and both Molewhisker and Swiftflame chuckled.

"Don't worry, Jayfeather's alright," Swiftflame assured Otterkit, patting his head with the paw she'd initially extended to chastise her apprentice with. "You two'll be just fine." The young warrior glanced over her shoulder. "I need to go help her stay on task with the moss collecting."

"The way you were helping her when we were almost run over by the two of you?" Molewhisker inquired, eyes twinkling.

Half purring, half sighing comedically, Swiftflame turned to follow her apprentice as she mewed, "If you have a better idea for retaliation when your apprentice pelts you with acorns and twigs, do tell me, my dear fellow." Her golden tail twitched as she disappeared from sight behind the tree.

"Right then," Molewhisker said, turning away from where the two she-cats had come running from. "We were about to go in this direction anyways - see there, you two, where the undergrowth's not as thick?" He pointed with his tail, and to Otterkit's surprise and delight he was able to make out what looked almost like a little path winding methodically through the forest.

"Yes!" he exclaimed excitedly.

"I see it too!" Grace mewed happily, right on the heels of Otterkit's exclamation.

"Well, then. That's good. What you see there is the beginnings of a path into the camp - it's just barely a few pawsteps away now, really. Come along." The big brown-and-cream cat set out blithely along the clearer track, and Otterkit and Grace followed on his heels, Otterkit casting a few glances back to the tree behind which Gingerpaw had darted. He noticed Grace doing the same thing a few times.

Were all of the Clan apprentices as..._excited_ as Gingerpaw? It wasn't that Otterkit had disliked the vibrant personality of the ginger she-cat, but she had been a bit overwhelming. "What did you say the apprentices were like, again?" he asked, trying to keep a nervous tremor out of his voice.

"Oh, they're not all as flamboyant as Gingerpaw, don't worry," purred Molewhisker, as though he'd been reading Otterkit's mind. "Foxpaw's very nice and easy-going, and Longpaw's extremely quiet. It's actually, hmm, not bothersome, but I do wish the little fellow had a good friend. Weaselpaw is Gingerpaw's littermate, but he's far from as extroverted as she is, and Lavenderpaw is also a good cat." He paused, then added, "I don't believe any of them will be in camp right now, besides Weaselpaw. Foxpaw and Lavenderpaw are in RiverClan territory doing their integrated training, and Olivefall and Longpaw have been practicing battle moves together around this time the past few days. Weaselpaw might even be out on patrol. We'll see."

By this time, the three cats had rounded a few rambling bends in the rough almost-path, and they were now mounting the crest of a gentle slope. Otterkit brushed through a clump of ferns, inhaling their sweet, damp, earthy aroma and stifling a sneeze as a few fronds tickled his small pink nose and silver whiskers. He shook his head and peered ahead into the forest. Something - a barrier of sorts - rose up out of the undergrowth and bracken quite suddenly.

If Otterkit hadn't figured out as much about the forest as he had in these two days walking through it, he'd have almost thought that the construction had _grown_ there since the beginning of time. It certainly looked as perfectly ageless as the rest of the forest - slender vines twined through it, moss crept along the sides, ferns and wild grasses poked out here and there - but the careful weaving of the bramble plants and thornbushes was too orderly to be accidental, and the dark, shadowy hole opening enticingly in the middle of the barrier could not have been formed by untrained plants.

"Wow!" Grace breathed at his side, and Otterkit jumped, feeling almost guilty - he had no idea why. When he saw that the brown tabby was looking up at Molewhisker, though, he relaxed.

"Indeed," the older tom mewed, closing his eyes slowly. "D'you know what that is, Grace?"

"Yes," she whispered, dark eyes wide. "That's the camp entrance, isn't it?"

"So it is, so it is," said the brown-and-cream tom benevolently. "Why don't the two of you go on in - or - " and he opened one eye, allowing it to twinkle down at them with a very Molewhiskery twinkle " - or, of course, I can go ahead of you, if you'd rather."

"Oh, no thanks," Grace told him quickly.

"Uh...could we go in together?" Otterkit asked at the same moment.

Molewhisker's ears flicked and his other amber eye sprang open. "What was that, now? One at a time."

"You don't need to go ahead for me," Grace meowed clearly. "But thank you. For asking."

"You're sure of that?" Molewhisker asked, his eyes glimmering keenly for a moment.

Grace blinked, looking almost guilty, but the look faded before Otterkit was even sure it had been there. "Yes, thanks," she replied.

"All right, then." The big cat turned to Otterkit. "And you...?"

"Could we walk in together?" Otterkit made sure to speak up this time.

"Oh, yes, of course," the cream-and-brown-furred warrior reassured him. "Shall we, then? Grace, you may lead the way..."

The scruffy tabby she-cat nodded solemnly as, head held high, she stalked coolly up to the barrier and marched into the tunnel without batting an eye. Otterkit gulped as he and Molewhisker approached the construction in turn, feeling his stomach go queasy. It wasn't so much that the wall of brambles was tall - it was only a few whiskerlengths over Molewhisker's head, if even that. It was more of what Otterkit felt, that this was yet another threshold, another crossing point, a place where he could either turn back or go on.

_It's not like you _can_ turn back, you know,_ he reminded himself, and felt another nervous swooping in his belly as he retraced the journey they'd taken in a single heartbeat with his memory. Strangely enough - or perhaps not so strangely - this gave him a new resolve, a new courage, a new hope to go on and do what he had come to do: join ThunderClan. Perhaps it was as if there was a wall at Otterkit's back, a wall not made of strong Twoleg things and wood and stone, but a wall of - to the kit, at least - immeasurable distance. And if there was a wall at his back, the only way he could go was forward, wasn't it?

These thoughts flashed through Otterkit's mind as he glanced up at Molewhisker one last time, and then stepped cautiously into the dark tunnel.

At first all he knew was shadows and a damp musty smell, mixed with the now-familiar scents of earth and green growing things. In places, little bits of dusty, watery light managed to filter through the woven plants, dappling the tangled roots at Otterkit's paws with a sort of strange graying golden luminescence reminiscent of the last weak rays of the sun before a storm. Once, Otterkit tripped over a particularly spiky root that was _not_ illuminated by this strange half-light, and he would have taken a nasty tumble into the bristling thorns if not for Molewhisker's steady paw that shot its way out and caught him as he fell. The dark gray kit cast a nervously grateful glance at the warrior, and was at first surprised to see that Molewhisker's head was bent - but a quick glance at the ceiling of the tunnel, which Otterkit had up until that point been ignoring, showed him that it was really quite low, and would probably cause problems for most adult cats attempting to make their way through it.

Although the trip through the passage seemed to take quite a long time, when Otterkit at last prepared himself to step into the warm afternoon light at the other end of the tunnel, he was shocked at the clear sight of the green and forested opening he'd entered through not very far behind him at all - perhaps just barely the length of five cats, if even that, and the shadowy passageway through the brambles and thorns quite suddenly seemed much less dark and much less foreboding. With this suddenly gained reassurance, Otterkit traipsed quite blithely into the world on the brighter side of the wall with hardly a second thought.

He'd only been in the tunnel for a few moments, but he still had to blink, slightly dazzled by the sun that shone directly into his eyes without protection from any trees. When the bright white spots faded from his vision and he could see again, Otterkit almost gasped in awe. He'd never seen anything like this before.

Around him on all sides, great towering cliffs of red stone rose from the ground, sloping dramatically from just a few catlengths right next to him to what looked like twenty or thirty on the other side of the unforested cut in the ground. The earth at his paws was drier than that in the forest, more pebbly and less soft and damp. Ferns sprang up around the edges of the towering sides in abundance, and moss crept out of an innumerable abundance of clefts and crevices in the fiery pinkish walls. A few straggling brambles slithered across the earth in some areas, and parts of the great rock cliffs were streaked with dark green vines, persistent climbers undaunted by the formidable task at hand. What caught Otterkit's attention most, though, were the few large shrubs and rock formations scattered around the clearing, looking for all the world as though they were _meant_ to be there - and perhaps they were, though Otterkit wasn't quite sure what exactly they might be used for.

What commanded his attention at first glance, of course, was the tall sloping rock rising up from just in front of one of the highest sections of cliff, not directly ahead of Otterkit, but rather slightly to his right. The base of the stone closest to the rocky wall appeared to be only a few catlengths away from the base of the cliff. As it departed the ground, the stone sloped fairly steeply up to a high point perhaps ten or fifteen catlengths above the rest of the clearing. Otterkit wondered what it must be like to stand up there - then his quickly rising desire to find out was quenched even more swiftly by the thought of what it must be like to _fall_ from there.

The next thing that caught Otterkit's eye was a great thorn bush, bristling proudly up against the cliff walls directly in front of him, just a little to his left. Even as he observed it, a cat came prowling out of the dark opening in the thorn bush, its golden eyes glinting. It was tall and sleek-furred with strong shoulders. The sun glinted off of its dark brown fur, giving it a spectacular sheen. The cat tilted its head back, examining Molewhisker and Otterkit, then bent down to say something to a small scruffy kit that looked almost exactly like Grace. Otterkit stared in shock for a moment before realizing that the kit _was_ Grace - she'd already made her way across the clearing, apparently. The silvery dark gray tabby kit quelled his feelings of indignation, wishing to finish examining this new place before interacting with anyone.

What his eyes flew to next was a decently-sized shrub that would have been unremarkable but for the brilliant pink-and-white flowers that climbed up it and twined through it gracefully. Otterkit almost thought he could smell them from where he stood, though the bush around which they grew was twenty or thirty catlengths away from him. He wondered if cats lived in that bush, the way they seemed to dwell in the thornbush. Whoever did live there, Otterkit hoped that they liked flowers. The kit liked looking at flowers when he had nothing to do, but the stronger-scented ones made him sneeze, and watching animals was far more interesting and far less she-cattish.

A large, thick bramble bush was also notable - there were a few clumps of bramble around the edges of the clearing, of course, but none so large as the spreading bush that lay against the left side of the highest bits of cliff. Otterkit wasn't sure if his ears were deceiving him or not, but he thought he could discern the sound of exuberant mews drifting from the bush.

"Molewiggle - " he began, then slapped his tail over his mouth in embarrassment as the cat looked down at him. "Molewhisker! Sorry. I meant Molewhisker."

"Happens to the best of us, kit," Molewhisker reassured him, and Otterkit found that he didn't half mind the big tom calling him kit, as opposed to Gingerpaw. "I recall several slip-ups in my own kithood. What was your question, now?"

"Oh. Um. Okay." Otterkit scratched his ear self-consciously, warm with embarrassment. "What's in that bramble bush? Do cats live there?"

"Hmm...that big bramble clump right there? Yes, that's our nursery, where the expecting queens and kits live," Molewhisker told him.

"Expecting?" The gray kit wrinkled his nose. "Expecting what?"

Molewhisker chuckled. "Expecting _kits_." He paused, then added worriedly, "You do know that kits come from she-cats, don't you? I don't know what they've been telling you in that Twolegplace."

"Yeah, I know that," Otterkit meowed, and remembered something that had been bothering him for several months. "Nobody ever told me how they _got _there in the she-cat, though. Does StarClan put them there or something?"

"Well. Hmm." Molewhisker fidgeted, looking distinctly uncomfortable for some reason. "Well, no. It's...complicated to explain."

Otterkit's ears twitched, and he wondered what was so complicated about it, but decided to drop the topic for the moment. "So will me and Grace be living there, then, since I'm called Otter_kit_?"

"Actually, no." The tom sounded much more at ease already. "No, the two of you will be sleeping over there." He pointed with his tail to a part of the wall that Otterkit had overlooked - now that the kit looked closer, he saw that there was a hollow in the wall, extending back into a cavern of sorts. Otterkit hadn't seen it at first because of the fronds of ferns, moss, and vines that carefully concealed the entrance. "That's the apprentices' den. After today you'll be called Otterpaw, and Grace will most likely be named Gracepaw, as her name isn't too strange to, hmm, to warrant a change, and you'll be denmates with the other apprentices. StarClan preserve us all." Molewhisker's long, creamy whiskers trembled with suppressed humor.

"So what's that thornbush then, and that big rock, and the flowery bush? Does the leader live on the really big rock? He's called Lionstar, right?" Otterkit found himself overflowing with questions all of a sudden, and had to force himself to pause and take a breath, wondering if Grace felt like this all the time. If so, no wonder she was so annoying.

"The thornbush is the warriors' den, and the hazel bush with honeysuckle is the elders' den. Jayfeather's been at us to take down the flowers for moons now, but the she-cats like them, so we've left 'em up for now. No, Lionstar doesn't live on the rock - his den's a hollow in the cliff right behind it. He does make announcements from it, though, and I say - here he comes now." Molewhisker turned swiftly to face the rock, and so did Otterkit, the kit's stomach doing a flip-flop and then proceeding to chase the rest of his internal organs around his abdomen. At least, that was what the dark gray tom thought was going on, from the feeling of commotion in there.

A cat was slowly making its way around the rock and across the clearing towards them. Though its pace was carefully measured, Otterkit could tell that it was not because of age or infirmity that the cat stepped carefully; it was simply by the great golden tabby's own choice. It - rather, _he_, as Otterkit could tell by its scent now - gave the impression of great strength and power, just barely repressed. A feeling of control and security seemed to radiate from the big tom's golden pelt, which glowed faintly in the rays of the afternoon sun.

"That's Lionstar," Molewhisker said quietly to Otterkit, but Otterkit was certain that he would have known that immediately no matter where he was or who he was with. There was something absolutely majestic about this cat that showed both the courage and heart of the great cat he was named after, and the nobility of a leader. Otterkit wasn't sure whether to feel afraid or comforted.

The golden-pelted tom padded up to stand not even a tail-length in front of Molewhisker, nodding in welcome to the warrior as Molewhisker dipped his cream-and-brown head respectfully. "I see you're back, Molewhisker. Welcome home," Lionstar mewed in a warm and resonating voice that seemed to fit him perfectly.

"I'm afraid I, hmm, took my time getting here." Molewhisker's eyes twinkled merrily, but his tone remained fairly businesslike, and even apologetic. "But here's Otterkit, and Grace is over there talking with Sharpfang."

"Otterkit," rumbled Lionstar, bending down to look Otterkit solemnly in the eyes. "I haven't seen you in moons. You look well. A bit skinny, but on the whole, very healthy."

"Yeah," Otterkit said dazedly. "Hi." He dipped his head clumsily, and Lionstar purred softly.

"Time enough to get you used to Clan customs later, Otterkit. For now - " The golden tabby suddenly stood up to his full height again and glanced around the clearing. Instinctively, Otterkit did too. A few cats were lounging in the shadows, cats that he hadn't seen at first when he came in, and another cat had just exited the hollow in the rock that Molewhisker had identified as the apprentices' den. For a moment Otterkit wondered how Gingerpaw had gotten back into camp, and then he saw the glint of blue eyes and noticed that this cat's fur was an even redder shade of ginger than Gingerpaw's. It must be Molewhisker's apprentice, whose name escaped him at the moment. "For now, I think all the cats that I need are here, so I'm just going to go ahead with the naming ceremonies."

"The what?" Otterkit asked Molewhisker nervously, as Lionstar flicked him kindly with his tail and bounded back in the direction from which he'd come.

"When you become an apprentice," the warrior clarified, and seeming to see the nervous glint in Otterkit's eyes, added, "You just need to step forward and touch noses with the cat who Lionstar names as your mentor. Nobody will blame you if you forget. You don't need to do anything odd or dangerous, no."

"Oh." Otterkit glanced down at his dark gray paws for a moment, then looked up, meeting Molewhisker's friendly amber gaze. "Okay."

"Let's head on over to the base of the Highledge - that's the tall rock right there - ah, see there, Otterkit? That cat coming around the Highledge now is Olivefall, our deputy. She must've come back from training Longpaw already."

Otterkit looked and saw a skinny gray tabby she-cat padding out from behind the soaring stone tower. She sat down near the base of the Highledge and tucked her tail around her paws neatly - Otterkit couldn't help but be reminded of Grace, for some reason.

As though his thoughts had summoned her, Grace suddenly came dashing over to Molewhisker and Otterkit. "That was Lionstar, right?" she chirped. "He's going to do our naming ceremonies right now, isn't he?" Not waiting for an answer, she hurried on. "I was just talking to Sharpfang. He's a very interesting cat - he knows a lot about the warrior code, and he was telling me all about our past conflicts with WindClan over the border. You see, I was asking him about whether he thought WindClan would or wouldn't object to our crossing over, and we started a very interesting conversation - did you know that he doesn't have an apprentice? I think I'd like to be his apprentice. Or Lionstar's, but Otterkit will probably get Lionstar, being well-known and all. Molewhisker, did you know that - Oh!" Grace clamped her mouth shut with an audible snap, staring up at the summit of the Highledge in rapt attention.

Otterkit followed her gaze and saw Lionstar standing at the top of the great rock, staring down calmly at the cats below him. Even as Otterkit's eyes traveled upwards, he heard Lionstar yowl an unfamiliar call: "Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey join here beneath the Highledge for a Clan meeting!"

Though it was completely foreign to Otterkit's ears, it seemed to be a regular sound in the camp to all the other cats, who one by one got to their paws and shook out their pelts, making their ways to the bottom of the rock. Otterkit noticed three cats exiting the nursery - a she-cat and two bouncing kits. They must've been playing and making that yowling that he'd heard. Molewhisker's apprentice was also drawing near to the stone.

Lionstar waited for a few moments, watching the Clan settle down, before mewing, "I've called you all here to witness a very special ceremony, one of my favorite ceremonies to perform. Although I've said these words many times in the past few days, take it from me, it is a blessing to be able to repeat this over and over again. Now, some of you may not have had the chance to notice the newcomers in our Clan - or, rather, one newcomer and one returning Clan member." A soft murmur swept through the small group of cats at this, but Lionstar continued on. "After I've given them their rather overdue apprentice names - they ought to have been apprenticed several days ago with Gingerpaw and Weaselpaw, but weren't here for it - please welcome them to the Clan. Also, do introduce them to their new Clanmates who aren't in camp at the moment - I know this is a busy time of day, and quite a few cats are missing this on patrol or training. Weaselpaw - " and Otterkit suddenly remembered that that was Molewhisker's apprentice's name " - please show them around their new den. Don't let them take Lavenderpaw's nest - we all know that she gets madder than a hornet when her sleeping area's obstructed by some cat's body." A ripple of purrs swept around the Clan, and Lionstar blinked slowly, allowing the amusement to dissolve on its own before he mewed, "Now, would Otterkit and Grace please step forward?"

Feeling as though his legs were made of wobbly twigs, Otterkit took a few pitifully small steps forward, but seeing another cat at his side - even if it was Grace - gave him courage, and he strode towards the Highledge more confidently alongside the other kit, taking a deep breath as Lionstar continued to speak.

"Grace and Otterkit, you have reached six moons old, and Grace, you have decided to join ThunderClan. We welcome you with open paws, and as for our returning Clan member, Otterkit..." Lionstar's voice took on an even warmer tone. "Welcome back." He paused for a moment, and then continued. "From this day on, until you receive your warrior names, you shall be known as Gracepaw and Otterpaw." For a moment, Lionstar let the silence resonate, and then he continued calmly. "Gracepaw, your mentor will be Sharpfang."

The newly named Gracepaw's ears pricked and her tail trembled in half-suppressed excitement, and Otterkit couldn't help but hold back a purr. Even she couldn't hide her feelings about this.

"Sharpfang," Lionstar mewed. "You're ready to take on another apprentice. You trained Amberpelt exceptionally well, and I know that you will pass on your loyalty and fortitude to Gracepaw." As the dark brown tom stepped forward and brushed noses with Gracepaw, Lionstar turned his gaze on Otterpaw, who tried to stand up as tall as he could, taking a deep breath.

"Otterpaw." The gray kit tried to hold back a wriggle of glee at the sound of his new name. "I will mentor you. I feel that I am ready to take on another apprentice, and that you will benefit from my training. I promise to do my best to teach you bravery and skill, and to guide your paws on the right path." The leader turned and bounded down the Highledge, arriving in the clearing faster than Otterpaw would've believed possible. He crouched and carefully touched his large silver-flecked muzzle to Otterpaw's tiny pink nose, then stood up...and then Otterpaw heard, like an echoing whisper, what was now his name flying through the air, gliding from each and every observing cat's mouth up, up and away into the breeze.

_Otterpaw._

_Otterpaw._

_Otterpaw._

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><p><strong>For the record: Yes; Mostly everyone does so far so that last bit isn't really an issue yet; YES, A THOUSAND TIMES YES; Sort of; I really don't have the slightest clue.<strong>

**Oh. And some of you may have found that little dialogue between Moley and Ottery about kits amusing. Yes, there is probably going to be a The Talk chapter in here somewhere, sometime when I'm bored and want to write something humorous. ;D So. Something for you to look forward to, or cringe in dreading anticipation of.**

**Next chapter: Either (a) Quailkit and Asterkit have family time with Aspenfrost and Wetwhisker, Asterkit stalks Ferretpaw, and Quailkit starts to develop a funny crush that will only cause awkwardness for her in future, or (b) we meet our WindClan PoV and follow it around its daily jobs, and observe fluffy baby WindClan kitties, and experience more racism against non-Clan cats, but not as much as in ShadowClan. Oh, and we see Teh Amazing Brooksong, and her father, and her mother, who strangely resembles a Certain ShadowClan Cat and also (this one completely accidentally) a Certain SandClan Cat. Tell me which option you like better, A or B! Whichever I don't do next, I'll do after the next Otterkit chapter (Otterkit chapters are every-other-chapter, except on extremely special occasions).**

**Shoutout to insane fangirl shippers who must needs insult the dead hypotenuse (or should I say, _segment_ - we're dealing with a three-guy dilemma here), who never really had a chance to begin with. Never mind going after the living segmentpotenuse who poses a much greater threat to your little OTP - he's SMEXY. *headdesktears* I will never understand these people, especially in this particular fandom of which I am speaking vaguely. Their ship ended up being the official one, and they still have to go after _us_. FFFFFT. -_- Unfair, shippers are unfair. xD**

**Have a nice night, guys. ^-^**

**Koraki out! **


	8. Chapter 7: Quailkit of ShadowClan

Previous Events in ShadowClan

_Quailkit (about four moons old) wakes up to her friend Bramblepaw bringing her, her sister Asterkit, and her mother Splashfoot some prey. Quailkit, who's the only cat in the nursery awake, gets Bramblepaw to take her outside into the foggy early-morning clearing. Bramblepaw and Quailkit fool around a bit, have a little run-in with Snakestar, and Bramblepaw rants about racism to Quailkit, abruptly cutting off and apologizing for unloading her problems on a mere kit. Eagletalon (the deputy) and Squirreltail (Bramblepaw's mentor) arrive and report to Snakestar on Bramblepaw's warrior assessment, which took place very early that morning. Eagletalon continually puts down Bramblepaw's performance, while Squirreltail tries - albeit not too hard - to give a more accurate picture of events. Finally they make a fair report, and Snakestar and Eagletalon go away to talk, presumably because Eagletalon is getting quite upset over a house cat becoming a warrior. Later that morning, Bramblepaw receives her warrior name - Bramblethorn - and Rockkit, a tomkit two moons older than Quailkit and Asterkit, is apprenticed._

_Other characters that were introduced - or at least briefly mentioned - are Ferretpaw (the son of Eagletalon and Sunflight; Asterkit has quite the crush on him, though as far as we know he's not aware of her feelings); Wetwhisker and Aspenfrost (Splashfoot's younger siblings; they're more friendly to Bramblethorn than many cats); and Beetlefoot (the easygoing medicine cat)._

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><p><span>Chapter 7 :: Quailkit of ShadowClan <span>

Quailkit woke slowly the next morning, her mind slowly whirring its way into full consciousness, her ears gradually focusing on the sound of soft voices murmuring somewhere over to her left. The kit recognized them immediately - she didn't think she'd gone a day of her life without hearing those cats somewhere in her vicinity. Her nose twitched as she slowly breathed in the three cats' scents. "Mama?" she mumbled drowsily, eyes still tightly closed. "Mom, what time is it?" Her jaws stretched in an enormous yawn as she spoke, muffling the words somewhat.

"It's quite late, Quailkit," her mother replied from somewhere above Quailkit's head. The little tabby she-kit's whiskers twitched slightly as she burrowed deeper into her soft bedding - Splashfoot's voice was uniquely soothing. Smooth and warm as a ray of golden sun, it carried a tang of depth in it as well; Quailkit had tasted honey several times in her life, and she was certain that if honey could speak, its voice would be like that of her mother. "You slept through the dawn patrol and the morning hunting patrol. Now it's almost sunhigh."

Lightning crackled through Quailkit's veins and her eyes shot open as she pounced to her feet in a panic, shaking moss bits and feathery down out of her fur. "You're kidding, right?" she yelped, fur standing on end. "It's not - that late - " Even before her mother could answer her, though, Quailkit's own senses had answered it for her; the rays of bright sun liberally dappling the nursery, the warmth in the air, the murmur of many voices outside the nursery, could only mean one thing.

"I'm sorry, Quailkit." Splashfoot blinked down at Quailkit, her golden-green eyes warm and concerned. "You and Asterkit took a while to get to sleep last night, though, so I thought I'd better let you sleep in."

"Asterkit?" Quailkit's gaze dashed around the nursery, skimming carelessly over the two cats who'd been speaking to her mother. "Where is she? Hi, Aspenfrost-and-Wetwhisker. Did she go out into the clearing?"

"Yes, I let her go out when the dawn patrol returned." The dappled brown queen gazed thoughtfully at Quailkit, then suddenly reached out a slender white forepaw and pulled the kit to her. Sinking into a relaxed crouch, Splashfoot began to groom Quailkit's ears slowly. "She wanted to have a chat with Bramblethorn," Quailkit's mother mewed between licks, "but I told her no. Don't you go chasing Bramblethorn around either, Quailkit - and the same goes for you two." Splashfoot paused her grooming and craned her head to shoot a playful warning glare at Aspenfrost and Wetwhisker.

"What, us?" Aspenfrost's whiskers twitched. "Don't worry, Splashfoot. We remember our own vigil a bit too keenly to go bothering poor Brambley." The gray she-cat flicked Wetwhisker with her tail. "Right, Wetwhisker?"

"Hmm?" The faintly dappled gray tom's head jerked up in surprise.

Aspenfrost chuckled and poked her brother playfully with a paw. "Our revered older sister was saying that it wouldn't be nice to get Bramblethorn up too early after her vigil."

Wetwhisker nodded quickly in assent. "Yes. Probably not a good idea to wake her. Should leave well enough alone."

Quailkit blinked slowly and affectionately at her kin as Splashfoot's warm, rough tongue rasped rhythmically over her ears. She loved Splashfoot's younger brother and sister as much as Bramblethorn, although ShadowClan's newest warrior would always hold a special place in her heart. Wetwhisker was a drifter, his mind prone to running ahead of itself and falling right out of discussions and into wherever a mind went, but it was quite easy to refocus him. Quailkit's favorite aspect of the young tom was his manner of speech - clipped and to the point, no beating around the bush. As for Aspenfrost, she was a vivacious, almost wickedly clever she-cat - ShadowClan to the bone, Quailkit had heard someone murmur once when Aspenfrost swept by. Still, despite her pure blood and high manners, Aspenfrost wasn't afraid to splash in mud puddles with her sister's kits; moreover, of all cats, the dappled gray she-cat's dearest companion was _Bramblethorn_. Perhaps Aspenfrost was a typical ShadowClan she-cat on the surface, but deeper inside she seemed to be something else entirely.

Just then, a familiar squeal rang out from somewhere beyond the nursery exit. Quailkit's ears pricked up instantly and she struggled out of Splashfoot's firm but careful grasp. "Can I go now? Please? I promise I won't mess with Bramblethorn, and I - "

Splashfoot held up one white paw. "No need to make any deals with me, Quailkit. Go ahead and play with your sister."

"Thanks, Mom!" Quailkit spun around and raced out into the camp's main clearing.

In the light of almost-sunhigh, the bramble bushes and threatening thorns of the practically impenetrable barrier encircling the camp looked far less threatening than they did at night, with moonlight slanting eerily through them, reflecting off of every cruel barb as if they were shining claws or glistening bones. Now they were simply entangled plants, green with new growth. Quailkit could see a few tiny white flowers - woodstars, her mother had identified them, her voice low with warning as she told her kits never to touch them - dappled around the base of the barrier. There would be more to come later, in the more open areas of the forest, Splashfoot had said, carpeting the ground like flowery stars in a sky of dark green foliage. Quailkit couldn't wait.

Moving on from the woodstars, Quailkit's eyes probed the area for her sister. At first the dark ginger kit was nowhere to be seen, but a sudden shout of laughter led Quailkit around the edge of the huge bramble bush that formed the warriors' den and under a few straggling strands of fern to join her sister in a secluded hollow in the thick, thorny walls.

Quailkit had known that the place was there, though she hadn't expected Asterkit to be there without Quailkit herself or Bramblethorn. Bramblethorn had discovered and renovated the little hidey-hole in her early apprenticeship, and barely a moon ago she'd revealed it to Quailkit and Asterkit with a touch of pride. The little den in the bramble barrier was just large enough for the three of them to squeeze in together and peer out at what little they could see of the camp clearing past the warriors' den, which blocked most of their vision, but as the three young she-cats grew, it was getting harder and harder to fit comfortably. At least Bramblethorn wasn't with them today, so that problem was eliminated.

Asterkit didn't look up to greet her sister; the ginger kit was currently completely absorbed in the process of prodding at a large spider, carefully putting the weary arachnid through its paces as best she could. One glance reassured Quailkit that the large, furry brown spider was not one of the ones that their mother had strictly warned them not to touch, and so she sank into a relaxed crouch next to her littler sister. "What'cha doing?" mewed the tabby kit nonchalantly, although the answer was fairly obvious.

"Playing with this guy," Asterkit said absentmindedly. "I named him Fuzzpaw. He's already hunted - now he's having running training, 'cause I can't find another spidey for him to practice fighting with..." She trailed off and poked at Fuzzpaw the spider, who had stopped moving as she spoke.

"I guess he's WindClan, then, right?" prompted Quailkit. "They prob'ly have special running training anyways, don't you think?"

"Yeah." Her sister's pale whiskers twitched. "Probably." She extended a dark orange right forepaw and set it down gently in front of Fuzzpaw. "He's very tired; I think he deserves a warrior name. Come on, Fuzzpaw, get up..." Asterkit tapped the ground behind the little bug sharply with her other paw, and Fuzzpaw wearily clambered up onto the forepaw in front of him.

"Are you going to have a whole naming ceremony for him, then?" Quailkit inquired with interest.

"Uh-huh. What should his warrior name be, do you think?"

"Um..." Quailkit tilted her head back and let her eyes drift halfway shut as she thought. "Wow, I don't know. It's a pretty hard first name to come up with last names for. You should've named him something easy, like Brownpaw."

Asterkit blinked, looking chagrined. She smoothed down the jagged white patch of fur on her chest with her tongue as she mumbled, "Well, it's too late now, so help me with this."

"Whatever." The little tabby she-kit leaned forward, sniffing at Fuzzpaw with considerable interest as she pondered. "What about Fuzzheart?"

"Nah." Asterkit's tail twitched. "I think I've got a better idea now. _Fuzzfrost_," she pronounced joyfully, wriggling the toes of her raised forepaw. This action caused Fuzzpaw no little anguish, as was apparent from his frantic scurryings.

"I think that's a dumb name," snapped Quailkit, incensed at Asterkit's easy rejection of her own suggestion, which hadn't been too easy to come up with.

Her sister's ginger fur fluffed up dangerously. "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah!" Quailkit felt the fur on her own back prickling up as she sidled a step closer to Asterkit - and Fuzzpaw.

"Well, too bad, 'cause I'm his leader, Asterstar of SpiderClan - " Suddenly the kit's eyes gleamed, and she hurried into the warrior ceremony without preamble. "I-call-upon-my-spidery-ancestors-to-look-down-on-this-young-spiderprentice - "

"I, Quailstar of ShadowClan, say that he has trained dutifully in the spidery ways of your spidery code!" interjected Quailkit spitefully and loudly.

"Too bad!" Asterkit shot back. "Because I say that too! Also, I commend him to the spidery ancestors as a warrior in his turn! Fuzzpaw, do you promise to - "

"He says he does," Quailkit interrupted again, glaring. Fuzzheart wasn't a great name, but it was better than Fuzzfrost. _"_By the powers of the spidery ancestors, I give you your warrior name. Fuzzpaw - "

Asterkit slammed her upraised paw to the ground in frustration, and the thoroughly frightened Fuzzpaw took the advantage of this moment to scuttle back to his spider home in a web in between a few twigs of the barrier. Neither kit noticed as Asterkit raised her voice to its loudest capacity. "From this moment on you will be known as - "

Fuzzpaw was never named, for at that moment there was a most fearsomely loud rustle, and the two kits both jumped, their open jaws closing with vigorous snaps. Quailkit immediately extricated herself from the hidey-hole, and flattened her ears in alarm when she saw who was looming over her. The tabby kit darted a nervous glance at Asterkit, who was pulling herself backwards out of the branches, then chanced another look up and winced. Beetlefoot's steady amber gaze wasn't particularly hostile, but the medicine cat was still quite formidable, a solid mass of long, dark gray fur and serious eyes, though Quailkit had heard that he was quite nice to cats that he liked. She and Asterkit had never gone exploring in his den yet, though Asterkit had wanted to, so he might not get too angry at them. Quailkit desperately hoped that this was the case.

"Well, hello there, kits," said Beetlefoot genially, his voice slightly muffled by the bundle of herbs in his jaws. His breath wafted their varied scents towards the two kits, and Quailkit wrinkled her nose at their unpleasant odors. Asterkit was less subtle, choking and coughing the moment the smells hit her senses, and Quailkit stared up at Beetlefoot in fear - but his whiskers were twitching as he inquired, "And what are you up to at sunhigh on this fine day that's causing you to get so upset?"

"Quailkit doesn't know what a good warrior name is," Asterkit accused.

"Actually, Asterkit doesn't," Quailkit informed Beetlefoot in a conspiratorial whisper, not really caring that her sister heard and hissed.

Beetlefoot's nose wrinkled in confusion. "And why were you discussing warrior names? Does one of you not appreciate Bramblethorn's - "

"No, no, no," Asterkit mewed, shaking her head and waving a paw dismissively. "No, her name's awesome. I was just naming my spider apprentice."

The gray tom appeared to choke on something quite suddenly, his whiskers trembling furiously. Quailkit pounced to her feet in alarm. "Are you okay?" she exclaimed, wondering what you did when a cat was choking.

As quickly as Beetlefoot's frightening condition had begun, it ended. Beetlefoot stopped choking quite abruptly, although his whiskers still quivered. "Yes, thank you, Quailkit," he purred, adjusting his grip on the herbs as he spoke and blasting her with more of the scent. "I'd be quite interested in hearing about this...ahem...spider apprentice - " his whiskers quivered a little faster, and Quailkit wondered suspiciously if he was purring at them - "but I need to take these herbs to the elders. Sparrowclaw's eyes are irritated again, and Scarpelt's been having aches and pains, and to top it all off, Brightdawn's joints are stiff. Would either of you two care to accompany me?"

"Sure, I guess," Asterkit replied, ears flicking. Quailkit knew that Asterkit liked Sparrowclaw and Brightdawn very well, and all of the elders liked the little ginger kit, too. Quailkit didn't have a problem with the elders either, though she liked Scarpelt better than Sparrowclaw. The battered old tom didn't often speak, but when he did break his silence, he told the most fascinating stories of battles and schemes and brave warriors, some of whose names Quailkit recognized - not at all like Brightdawn's tales of LionClan and TigerClan, which suited Quailkit fine but had no connection to her life, or Sparrowclaw's ramblings about long-ago days when some cat called Firestar was the leader of one of the other Clans. Scarpelt was more fun.

Quailkit passed from her reverie just in time to see her sister's dark ginger tail disappear from view as she bounded into the clearing from behind the warriors' den, with the medicine cat following more sedately. "Oh - um - I'll come too!" the tabby she-cat yowled, hurrying forward to catch up to Beetlefoot.

A few cats lingered in the clearing, but not many - most were probably out on patrol, and a few night hunters were most likely sleeping in their dens. The elders' bramble thicket was at the moment enclosed by a golden ray of sunlight, and the faint sounds of what sounded like a spirited dialogue emitted from it; as the medicine cat and his two companions drew nearer, the voices grew gradually louder, until Asterkit and Quailkit were wincing at the volume of the conversation as they stood at the entrance of the den.

"See there, kits aren't the only ones who get into fights," chuckled the dark gray medicine cat. "I firmly avow that you're just practicing your skills for when you become elders." He ducked under a low-hanging branch as he spoke, entering the den without batting an eye. Quailkit glanced at Asterkit and huddled a bit closer to her, then stepped inside tentatively as Beetlefoot continued. "I dread the day when some of my Clanmates become elders, if they make it that far. Young Ferretpaw and Rockpaw are going to be pawfuls, I fear, and so is your mother's sister Aspenfrost. Oh," he purred, seeming to sense Quailkit's disbelief, "you may think she's going to be quite lovely and kind when she grows old, but I remember her as a kit. I wish I didn't."

"What about when _Snakestar_ becomes an elder?" whispered Asterkit to Quailkit, and snickered. Quailkit's own whiskers twitched - thankfully neither she nor Asterkit had ever received an earful of Angry Snakestar, but Aspenfrost and Bramblethorn never tired of telling the sisters horror stories about their leader's scathing tongue and wrathful tendencies.

Beetlefoot seemed to have overheard them, though Quailkit was fairly certain that that hadn't been Asterkit's intention. "What, indeed?" he muttered in a teasing tone as he entered the elders' den and set down his herbs.

Quailkit hurried into the moss-covered little hollow behind the medicine cat, doing the best she could to block the sound of the bickering elders out. It seemed that Sparrowclaw and Scarpelt were having a go at each other, while Brightdawn lamented the idiocy of tomcats in general and these two tomcats in particular. If it hadn't been so loud, Quailkit thought she might have found it funny, but as it was she didn't overhear much of the fight as Beetlefoot calmed it down - from what she could gather, it seemed that Sparrowclaw had been making a bit of a fuss about his eyes, and Scarpelt had retorted that Sparrowclaw had nothing to fuss about compared to Scarpelt, at which Sparrowclaw had made some comment or other about how Scarpelt received his scars. Scarpelt hadn't taken this comment so well and had said something about the way Sparrowclaw was blinded. Quailkit didn't hear how he was blinded and was promptly intrigued, never having heard the story, but by that point Beetlefoot had somehow managed to resolve the conflict and was chewing some herbs into a paste for Sparrowclaw's irritated eyes.

"Kits," he mewed between chomps, "if you feel like helping, you could chew up that pile of herbs there - " he flicked his dark, feathery tail towards a little heap of leafy plants " - for Scarpelt. You don't have to if you don't want to, of course," the medicine cat added, seeing the look of distaste Quailkit couldn't help but shoot at her sister.

"Ah, don't trouble yourselves on the old badgerheart's account," Brightdawn chuckled, swatting Scarpelt playfully with one ginger-dappled paw. "He can chew them up for himself, or I can chew 'em up for him, right, Scar?"

"Thank you very much for volunteering my poor, aching teeth for the job, Brightdawn," the gray-and-brown tom mewed drily as he reached out and tugged the herbs closer to himself, staring at them with a look of distaste in his dull blue eyes. "Do I just chew them up and spread them on, then, Beetlefoot?"

"Mmmhmm," Beetlefoot mumbled vaguely, now engrossed in the task of applying his herb paste to Sparrowclaw's eyes.

"Right, then," muttered Scarpelt as he began to chew away at the herbs with a determined look stamped upon his face.

As her fellow elder worked his jaws, Brightdawn purred and flicked her tail at the kits, a familiar signal that told them to settle down wherever they felt comfortable. Asterkit immediately scurried forward and planted herself up against Brightdawn's side, in between the tortoiseshell queen and Sparrowclaw. Following her sister more slowly, Quailkit sank into a comfortable crouch on Brightdawn's other side, next to Scarpelt. "Can you tell us a story?" she inquired, turning to Brightdawn and blinking charmingly up at the old cat.

"Of course, of course," chuckled the she-cat. "One moment - Beetlefoot, those herbs all by themself there, are those for my aching?"

Beetlefoot turned away from Sparrowclaw, seemingly finished with his work on the blind tabby tom, and pushed the leaves toward Brightdawn as he padded across the den to Scarpelt. "Yes," he mewed as he began to help Scarpelt work a now-thoroughly chewed herb compound into his pelt, "those are daisy leaves, useful for aching joints. I put crushed rosemary blooms, as well as celandine and chaparral, on Sparrowclaw's eyes to help with the irritation, and now I'm helping Sparrowclaw apply a paste of dock - " The big tom broke off and looked briefly, searchingly, at Asterkit, and then his gaze shifted to Quailkit. She shifted nervously under the scrutiny of his dark amber eyes, but his eyes soon traveled away from her. "Never mind. I was rather hoping that one of you would have developed an aptitude for this work by now, but it seems that I'll just have to wait a little longer for my apprentice."

"Snakestar was your apprentice, wasn't he?" chirped Asterkit.

Before Beetlefoot could answer, Brightdawn let out a raspy purr and reached out to tousle Asterkit's headfur with a friendly paw. "Exactly what I was going to say, little'un. He was indeed."

"Well do I remember the day that he became leader." Sparrowclaw's voice fell into a sing-song, reminiscing tone. "It was cloudy, quite stormy, though it never rained. We were all of us on edge, especially you, Scarpelt, weren't you? Of course," and his voice changed, dropping in volume, but not quite to a whisper, "Scarpelt was recovering from - well." With a twitch of his dark brown ears, Sparrowclaw indicated the claw marks that streaked across the other elder's back and sides, the ones that had given him his name.

"So I was," spat Scarpelt moodily, his fur rising along his spine as Beetlefoot stepped away and sat down, curling his thick gray tail around his paws, "no thanks to that worthless WindClan kittypet and his traitorous foxheart of a mate!"

Quailkit blinked in surprise; across Brightdawn's ginger-dappled back, she saw her sister's fur quiver. Asterkit seemed to have been more alarmed by Scarpelt's furious snarl than Quailkit had been. It wasn't as if Scarpelt was going to hurt them, though. "A WindClan cat hurt you?" the tabby kit probed, hoping to uncover a new battle story.

"He did, indeed. Eagletalon had led an attack on WindClan under cover of night, a strong patrol of myself, Finchcall, Yewleaf - "

"Isn't that sort of unfair?" Asterkit's tentative voice cut through Scarpelt's narrative, and Quailkit glared at her sister. Interrupting wasn't polite, and she'd been interested in hearing this story, which she didn't think she'd heard before.

Scarpelt blinked, swiveling his head so that his stormy blue eyes met Asterkit's golden ones. "Unfair? How so?" he inquired.

"Oh...well..." The ginger kit buried her paws under the moss, kneading nervously at the floor. "Well, we can see and fight better in the dark than they can, and we were attacking too, and they were defending - "

"Well, you see, Asterkit, we had been fighting for a while before that, so it wasn't as if they weren't expecting an attack," the elder explained patiently. "And it isn't unfair to use our strengths, it's simply tactical - that means smart," he added, in response to Quailkit's questioning look. "WindClan are very fast, and they weren't going to slow down for us, so we weren't going to attack them in the day, now were we?"

"No, I guess not," Asterkit mewed, though she still looked confused. "Can you keep going?"

This time Beetlefoot intervened before Scarpelt could continue. "Actually, I think we'd better not, if you can forgive me, Asterkit," he purred. "Perhaps the story of how Streakstar of TigerClan defeated the mighty Blazestar of LionClan, who accused her of treachery, would be more appropriate."

"We've already heard that," Quailkit answered, noticing with trepidation that Asterkit seemed to be about to agree with the medicine cat. Quailkit didn't want to hear the same old TigerClan, LionClan, and LeopardClan stories _again_ - at least, not while there were more interesting stories to be told, about cats she knew well.

Scarpelt's tail twitched. "Yes, Beetlefoot, what would it hurt to tell them true stories about cats they know for once?" he asked, nearly echoing Quailkit's own thoughts.

"It wouldn't hurt," Beetlefoot replied indignantly. "I just think that they might not be ready to hear about conflicts like this."

Quailkit bristled. She heard Asterkit mew loudly, "I'm ready!" and couldn't agree more.

"Why don't we compromise, then?" Brightdawn suggested, stretching and adjusting into a relaxed crouch. "We tell 'em a story about some cats that they know, but without battles and such."

"Okay!" Asterkit agreed instantly. "How about Snakestar becoming leader when he used to be a medicine cat?"

"Yeah, let's hear that one!" Quailkit meowed. She was quite interested to learn this, actually - their leader was apparently very young, younger than Splashfoot and not that much older than Aspenfrost or Wetwhisker. He was really very handsome too, with his dark blue eyes and his long, soft, black fur - at least, Quailkit assumed it was soft. She'd never had occasion to touch it, though she'd rather wanted to once or twice. And he had used to be a medicine cat, according to everyone. Why had he become leader? He was a good leader, but Quailkit was certain that he'd have been a great medicine cat too, if - and she wrinkled her nose at the thought - a little on the mean side...

"No," Beetlefoot mewed firmly, crushing Quailkit's hopes. "That involves several battles that I'm certain their mother wouldn't want them to be hearing about just yet."

Now, this was a new sentiment. Quailkit wondered what he meant - and then Asterkit asked the medicine cat right out, and Quailkit silently thanked her sister and focused on Beetlefoot's answer, which turned out to be just as vague as the statement Asterkit had questioned him about. Quailkit was becoming very disappointed in the ShadowClan medicine cat.

"Well," Beetlefoot mewed in answer to Asterkit, "well, it's complicated. You'll understand when you hear the story someday..."

"I don't see what the problem is," said Scarpelt obstinately, blue eyes glinting in challenge.

"Why don't we tell them how Bramblethorn joined the Clan?" suggested Sparrowclaw suddenly, tail twitching. There was something in his voice, seemingly directed at Scarpelt, that Quailkit couldn't quite detect - almost a teasing tone, but why should such a question be expected to get under the brown-and-gray elder's fur? "She's a good friend of theirs - isn't that right, kits?"

"Yep," Quailkit mewed, and Asterkit echoed her assent.

"That's a nice idea, Sparrowclaw," Brightdawn purred, nestling down a little deeper into the moss. "What do you think, kittens? How 'bout you, Beetlefoot? Scarry, you feeling up to it?"

"I want to hear it!" Asterkit exclaimed, bouncing up and down in anticipation.

"Me too," agreed Quailkit. It might not be too exciting, but she'd never heard this story before from Bramblethorn. She had asked her friend once or twice about it, only to be rebuffed or distracted somehow. There were apparently no battles involved, which was depressing, but it was good enough for Bramblethorn to not want to tell her, and that was pretty good.

Beetlefoot's tailtip twitched. "It's fine with me," he mewed. "I think they'll like it."

Scarpelt sighed. "You two can tell it," he muttered. "I'm not interested." With that he got slowly to his feet, turned around in his nest, and flopped down again, facing the den wall.

A bit crestfallen at that new development - Scarpelt was a great storyteller - Quailkit turned expectantly to Brightdawn. "So..." the tabby kit mewed, "so Bramblethorn joined the Clan how?"

"It was a dark and stormy night," Brightdawn began.

"Just like the old legends!" whispered Asterkit excitedly.

"Yes, Asterkit, just like that. No interruptions, please, thank you," the elder mewed, her amber eyes brightening as she set off into her tale. "It was a full-blown leafbare storm, sleet comin' down sharp as claws, hard as ice, freezin' on the ground. I could hear little branches cracking off of pines - snap, snap, snap, just like that, in the old angry wind. I had a bit of a cough and was achy as the Da - 'scuse me, as achy as anything. Anyways, little Ferretkit was missing - that's Ferretpaw, of course, you two know him?"

"Yes," Asterkit said, sounding absolutely besotted. Quailkit rolled her eyes and nodded briefly.

"Right. He was missin', and poor Sunflight was frantic, and so was Eagletalon, and Snakestar must've been at his wit's end, and I was snapping at Beetlefoot to get me somethin' for my poor aching bones," the tortoiseshell she-cat purred nostalgically. "Sorry about that, Beetleface." Her whiskers twitched affectionately as she continued on, leaving Quailkit and Asterkit trying to hold in their gleeful squeals at the look on the taken-aback Beetlefoot's face. His beetleface. Quailkit choked on a purr. "In any case, we couldn't find him and couldn't find him, the little fox, but you know what we found out had happened later? He'd gone down to the stream in the dark - in the storm - because he'd heard the patrols reporting that it was frozen. Well, it was when the poor kit got there, but he apparently walked right out on the ice, little reckless mousebrain, and though he was just barely two moons old - StarClan knows how he got out there, even - it cracked under him and swept him out to the lake."

Asterkit squeaked in dismay, having gotten over "Beetleface". Quailkit was still dwelling on it, however, and managed to suppress the wild twitching of her tiny white whiskers as Asterkit glared furiously at her. It _was_ Ferretpaw they were talking about, and Asterkit got quite serious about cats purring at her darling Ferretpaw.

"Yes, indeed," Brightdawn agreed, inclining her head towards Asterkit. "O' course, we didn't know that then, we just knew he was missing - and then someone, I forget who, discovered his scent trail leading out of camp and we were all quite disturbed in our minds - but anyways, meanwhile, Ferretkit'd been swept down to the lake, and I'm sure I don't know how the little fellow didn't drown, but he was swept quite close to shore by the current, thankfully. Now I'm sure you can guess where this is going - " Quailkit had a few guesses already, indeed " - but Bramblethorn, who was at that time a house cat named - I forget what. Beetlefoot, d'you remember?"

The dark gray tom inclined his head. "I believe her name was Bren-na, or something of the like. You'd have to ask her, though. House cats' names are beyond me, most likely because they're given by those insane Twolegs."

"True that," Brightdawn agreed darkly. "Anyways, she'd had a fight with the older cat she lived with, an' she'd run outside, not even seeing the approaching storm, being a house cat and all, had found her way onto ShadowClan territory, and was stranded under a tree. Saw Ferretpaw being swept along the lake shore, and, like the right courageous idiot young Bramblethorn is, went in after him."

Quailkit gasped, not able to help herself. She'd thought that that might happen, but still - what a stupid, if brave, thing to do! Bramblethorn could have been _killed_ saving some random kit. Well, of course, it was Ferretkit, but Bramblethorn hadn't known that then, and what if she'd died and Quailkit and Asterkit had never known her...

"Anyways," the elder was continuing, "she got him out, dried him off as best she could, an' went looking for his parents. By sheer luck she stumbled upon the patrol that had just left camp to look for Ferretkit. They half wanted to kill her dead right there, but she managed to talk them out of attackin' her, and instead they brought her to camp. Snakestar invited her to join us - "

"Who knows what possessed him to do _that,_" Scarpelt growled flatly - the first words he'd said since Brightdawn had started her story.

"ShadowClan was in need of cats, what with my having retired, the exile of quite a few cats, and Scarry's going and getting himself incapacitated," Brightdawn pressed on calmly. "So Snakestar had a talk with Bramblethorn - quite a few talks, actually, as she caught a cough from her exposure to the cold air an' had to stay in Beetlefoot's den. Of course, poor Ferretkit nearly died, and he was stuck in the den just as long as she was, having swallowed water and all that good stuff, right, Beetlefoot?" Not waiting for the medicine cat's nod, she pressed on, "His apprenticeship ceremony was almost delayed because of it, though you wouldn't have known it, as it was kept quiet. Nothin' I couldn't find out, though." The she-cat's eyes sparkled almost mischievously. "In any case, Bramblethorn made friends with Wetwhisker an' Aspenfrost during her stay here, and ended up decidin' to join us. She had to train so very hard, being older than apprenticing age and all, but you see, it paid off anyways. It helped that she already knew how to hunt. And really, that's the end of it. That's all that happened. She saves Ferretpaw, she stays in camp for a while, makes friends, talks with the leader, ends up joining, y'know?" Brightdawn stretched her jaws in an enormous yawn. "Indeed, indeed. That's how it went."

"So I guess Ferretpaw is really good friends with her too, huh?" Quailkit asked, shooting a devious glance at her sister. Bramblethorn had never seemed to spend much time with the cream-furred apprentice, but if they really did know each other, Quailkit could ask Bramblethorn to formally introduce Ferretpaw to Asterkit...ah, the fun she would have watching _that _interaction...

"Nah, not at all," Brightdawn mewed nonchalantly. "See, Bramblethorn's a house cat, as they like to call themselves nowadays - somethin' to do with Twoleg nests, don't ask me why, I don't know - and Sunflight and Eagletalon and young Ferretpaw, they don't much like house cats. I don't like 'em myself, much - no self-respecting ShadowClanner does. Ah, I'm not saying there's a problem with Bramblethorn. She's a brave and strong addition to the Clan, in _my_ opinion - " and here she scowled almost pointedly at Scarpelt, and Quailkit wondered why " - and I do believe she must have Clan blood in her ancestry, of course, for her to be that way. It's not unheard of for Clans to interbreed with them, you know. But house cats that choose to live with Twolegs, can't prove themselves, can't even gather up the backbone to live like a _real_ cat..." Brightdawn hissed softly.

"Yeah," Quailkit agreed, feeling a great surprise dawning in her heart - she'd been quite confused over a Clan cat's inherent and required scorn of house cats, and her own love for her friend. Brightdawn was probably right, though, and Quailkit wished she'd asked the elders about this before, because this was the perfect explanation. Bramblethorn had always seemed to be a very special cat, anyways, and she'd never seemed like less than a ShadowClan cat, her nervousness over being able to become a warrior aside. "Yeah. But," she added hurriedly, realizing a problem, "why don't Sunflight and Eagletalon and them know that?"

"Well, that's their opinion, Quailkit," Sparrowclaw meowed, joining the conversation suddenly. "Personally, I think Bramblethorn is quite nice, and I do agree with Brightdawn's idea that she most likely has Clan links not far back in her bloodline, but to be honest, I don't think a cat who's lived as a house cat as long as she did can ever be exactly the same. She's a nice cat, personally, and a great addition to the Clan, but she still isn't quite... I don't dislike her, it's just that she isn't a _real_ Clan cat, if you understand what I'm saying. Of course, that's just my own opinion. Eagletalon and those who share his thoughts are just a bit more aggressive towards Twoleg pets and warriors who aren't Clanborn, that's all."

Quailkit blinked, feeling vaguely shocked at something Sparrowclaw had just said - but in his stream of quite suitable explanations, she'd forgotten what it was. "I guess I'm sort of - I guess I agree with Brightdawn on it," she said, trying to sound grown-up, though her head was spinning. Talking about house cats and Clan cats and _real_ Clan cats was really confusing - weren't they all just plain old cats in the end, anyways? It was almost like thinking that, say, a white cat and a tabby cat were different because of their fur color. It didn't quite make sense to Quailkit, and yet Bramblethorn cared about it, and Brightdawn cared, and Sparrowclaw cared, and Eagletalon cared, and the rest of the Clan seemed to care, so it made sense that she should have an opinion too. "Still, I don't like that Eagletalon's all mean about it, 'cause she did save his kit, you know," added the tabby she-kit lamely.

"That is true," Brightdawn agreed. "Whatever that young fellow thinks about house cats, he could've put it aside, I think, just at least for a while to thank her, and he needn't have kept Ferretpaw from liking her either. Still, it is his choice. Eagletalon's perfectly entitled to feel whatever way he likes about house cats."

"Yeah. You're right, I guess," Quailkit agreed. It was confusing, but of course she meant what she said, because if Quailkit and Brightdawn could have their opinions, Eagletalon and Ferretpaw could have their own, and so on. It was just being fair.


End file.
